And Hell Followed with Him
by Blightblood
Summary: It's funny, there's so much in this world which we fear and fight against: Grimm, undead, the first flame extinguishing, there's just so much that on this planet that we view as a threat; what amuses me though, is that while they fight against our mortal enemies, among them is probably the most... murderous monster on all of Remnant; my old friend.
1. Chapter 1

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, and I do not own any other characters, places, or organizations that appear in this fanfic. They all belong to their respective owners or corporations.  
_**

 _ **Update: No longer multicrossover  
**_

* * *

 _"You there, boy, you're standing in my way."_

 _"..."_

 _"Please, move."_

 _"..."_

 _"My patience will not be tested by a petty soldier of Mirrah; move_ _ **now**_ _."_

 _"... No."_

 _"What? Do you even know of me, boy?"_

 _"I do..."_

 _"Then you know it would wise if you obey my command, if you wish to live..."_

 _"I'll move for you... on one condition."_

 _"And that is?"_

 _"... Give me your axe, old man, and I'll let you pass."_

 _"..."_

 _"You can refuse if you want, it'll just make it more fun to take it from ya."_

 _"... I've killed dozens of soldiers on the battlefield; some being soldiers of Mirrah, just like you. What is it that gives you confidence of defeating me?"_

 _"Your old age, it has put you in a weaken state."_

 _"... Is that it?"_

 _"Did I stutter, old fool? Or is your hearing not what it used to be? Ya should know by now that there are these things called hearing-aids."_

 _"Keep talking, boy, it'll only make me feel less guilty of killing another mother's arrogant son."_

 _"Keh heh heh heh... I heard the story of why you retired: human's are frail opponents, whereas dragons are the total opposite. So you decided to go out and kill as many dragons as you can, to test yourself."_

 _"..."_

 _"But what total bullshit, we both know the truth: you retired just because of your age turning you into a total bitch. Now I'll tell you this one more time: give me your axe, or I'm gonna eviscerate you with it..."_

 _"How about this,_ _ **boy:**_ _step aside, or die, simple as that. You won't stand a chance with that pale imitation of yours..."  
_

* * *

"WAKE UP!"

The shout, along with cold salt water being thrown out of a bucket and upon the prisoner, was more than enough to agitate the man as he awoke, prompting him to lunge at the woman with his cuffed hands open. It was so sudden that the knight had no idea what he was doing until his chain-gloved hands entombed her throat with a surprisingly solid grip.

He was strangling her.

She dropped the bucket over the row boat as she called for her companion's help, who at the time was rowing their boat to the beach with two steers. Her raspy pleas were fortunately loud enough for the larger knight to hear, turning to see the sight that was unfolding behind him. He immediately reached for his rapier, pulled it out, and lunged forward with it pointed to the back of the prisoner's neck.

But he never reached his target; the man moved his entire body to the left of the boat, nearly tipping it over, and causing the knight to instead pierce the throat of the other captor. Gurgling and gagging soon filled the cloudy atmosphere, with blood flowing out of the new orifice in the woman's throat, and alongside more spewing out of her mouth.

The male captor stared with unwavering horror and disbelief. Fury and intent to kill dominated those feelings however as he pulled his rapier out of her throat, turning to attack the prisoner.

Only he was beaten to striking the next blow; the prisoner had grabbed his axe, holding onto the shaft with both of his hands, and decapitated the male captor with metal and electrical sparks. His head went flying into the water, creating a small splash, and the headless body slumped over the edge of the boat, with crimson spraying into the water.

The prisoner's loud breathing began to compete with the woman chocking on her own blood, whom he turned around to look at, seeing her covering her throat with her left hand. A bit of blood was still flowing out, breaching in between her fingers. The armored prisoner smiled under his steel mask-helmet, closing the distance between him and his injured captor, who started to squirm away until he wrapped his arm around her waist, kneeling down to meet her crying brown eyes and with his lifeless blue ones.

The man chuckled, and dropped his axe to his side to snatch a key off of the dying woman's belt. It was a struggle to awkwardly position his hands in order to unlock the rectangular wooden cuff, but it was worth the effort. After he unlocked the cuffs and clipped them to his belt for future use, the now-free knight looked over to the woman, looking more and more pale every second.

But despite dying, she still had enough energy to spit a mixture of saliva and blood onto the grey tunic of the prisoner. " ** _Fuck you, Creighton!_** " More blood poured over her lips as she cursed the man, who again chuckled in amusement.

"Oh Jessetiel," Creighton reached for her hand which covered her vulnerable throat, moving it with ease, "die." He forcibly shoved his whole left hand into the orifice, causing the female captor release a cracking-cry of pain as he ripped the insides of her throat apart, squeezing even more blood out the opening and her mouth.

She started to cry near the end, with Creighton finishing her off by grabbing his axe with his right hand and swinging it downwards, hitting the top of her head with the axeblade. A bit of yellow sparks sprayed out along with the woman's blood as he ripped it out of her cranium, creating a hybrid sound of crackling electricity and wet squish.

Her eyes rolled to the back of her skull, and Creighton removed his hand from the inside of her throat, finding it to be soaked in liquid crimson. But he didn't mind that; there were more pressing matter on his mind now, like what to do now.

He looked up to see that he was pretty far out from the larger vessel which he and two dead captors sailed on to reach their destination. The boat was filled with even more captors, just like the two deceased in the row boat, all armed to the teeth. But Creighton did not fear them, he even believed himself to be more than capable enough to kill all of them.

But he also believed that to be pointless; there was no way he could man a vessel of that size all by himself, and even if he kept the others alive, he knew they would refuse to help him, plus, he had no desire to return home. So he turned around to see their destination: a beautiful beach, void of any human life, and further inland was a forest, barely visible from where he was standing.

That was where he wanted to go. So he tossed overboard the two bodies, and started rowing the boat towards the beach, reaching the sandy shore in no less then five minutes. The wooden hull brushed up against the minuscule rocks, signaling to Creighton to jump out of the boat, with his axe in his right hand. He stood there, taking it all in, realizing too that he's actually free.

No one witnessed the crime he just committed, and no one in this country would know who he is; news from his own homeland barely reaches out to others, like who is arrested for what as an example. Creighton started to jitter with excitement, with one goal in mind: to find that partner-in-crime who betrayed him.

That's why he chose to be executed here; his partner fled to here, and now with his captors dead, Creighton had all the time to find him. It would take awhile to do so though, that he knew, but Creighton believed he'll find his former partner eventually. And he'll have to be cautious, especially in the forest which he intends to enter, with it being renowned for its monstrous inhabitants.

He didn't hesitate to enter however.

Beneath his feet were the sounds of crunching shells being replaced with crunching twigs and leafs. For the longest time, Creighton could not even recall how that sounded, let alone birds chirping, which was what he was hearing also. He also couldn't remember the last time he saw a healthy tree with emerald-green, left unscarred by conflict. In actuality, there was a lot about this forest which he had forgotten what looked or sounded like, and he doubted he would remember what they were like in the first place.

But now, he had the desire for vengeance to thank, for without that, he would not be reminded of these characteristics of a healthy country. But he could have lived without being reminded though.

After walking for what Creighton felt like to be an hour, a growl stopped him dead in his tracks. Which broke out into a howl, prompting the outlaw to turn on a dime, looking behind him to see one of the many inhabitants of the forest: a werewolf-like creature, with pitch black fur, many bone shards protruding out of its body, and a red-marked, bone mask covering its face, revealing only it glowing-red eyes.

A Grimm.

Creighton grew furious at what this meant, and charged the howling beast at break-neck speed, roaring in response and nearly bifurcated the beast, splitting its head and upper chest apart. Steaming blood shot out like a miniature geyser, staining his armor and unfortunately, doing the same to his eyes, which were midway through recovering from the saltwater.

He winced, but endured the pain, not even bothering to rub his eyes, but that was due to his steel mask making it difficult to rub his eyes in the first place. Creighton just opened his eyes, which were starting to shed weak tears, then turned and ran.

He prowled through bushes, small and large, jumped over logs, sidestepped trees, he was trying his damnest to run from the new sound of a dozen more Beowolves howling, answering the howl of the single one that died by Creighton's hands, motivating him to only run even faster. But after having walked for quite a length without stopping for a rest, Creighton already found his body tempting him to stop. The motivation for self-preservation though out-weighed the idea of resting.

The outlaw knight stopped dead in his tracks however, being knocked to the ground by ramming into an armored individual, knocking that one down as well. When he looked at what it was, Creighton cursed out loud, grabbed his axe, and swung, not even bothering to get back on his feet. The axeblade struck the neck of a lion clan warrior, effectively decapitating the fallen animal-humanoid.

What followed was silence when Creighton realized he had just killed a gold-maned Lion warrior, which are revered as elders by the species. This prompted Creighton to yell, "FUCK!" when he looked up at the rest of the lion clan warrior encampment, who just watched one of their elders being slain, all the while more grimm joined in the chorus of beowolves howling.

The lion clan warriors roared as well, but not in response to another calling for their presence, rather at Creighton for killing one of their own. The feeling of wanting to live told Creighton to get back up on his feet and run, specifically to his right, since the orchestra of roaring grimm was coming from behind him, aggravated lion clan warriors stood in front of him, and to his left was a cliff. So the only sensible solution was to run to the right.

Much to his chagrin, Creighton found himself having to avoid the same obstacles like before, except this time he was now running from two threats, with one being dangerously closer to him than the other. He could have sworn his heart was about to explode from exhaustion if he had to keep running at this rate, and the thought of being captured by either of exerted more stress upon the outlaw-knight. Which is responsible for Creighton finding out he could run faster than he could ever imagine, especially when he was wearing a full suit of armor.

That was not enough though; the Lion clan warriors were still tailing him, keeping up with the speeding warrior. And unfortunately, Creighton found himself having to stop, for he now found himself nearing another cliffside of a grassy field. He turned with haste, seeing that the full mass of Lion warriors that were chasing, blocking him off from fleeing to his left or right, all snarling with glee from the thought of avenging their fallen elder.

Rarely in his life, would Creighton believe he was going to die.

Then the Grimm who chased him emerged from the forest's darkness, and attacked the Lion clan warriors, taking them by surprise. And Creighton smiled, with all his dread dying in front of his eyes, as the Lion clan in front of him quarreled with the Grimm, all spilling their blood, all taking their lives, all having forgotten whom they originally wanted to die.

Save for one.

A Lion clan warrior had tackled Creighton.

Both had found themselves free-falling.

And both of them felt like their bodies had finally broke when they made contact with a dirt surface.

Creighton cried and swore at fate, while the Lion warrior yowled at the same person, all the while the feud that was taking up over the cliffside was still taking place, ignoring the two missing combatants. They lied there, panting, with their suffering seeming to have no end in sight. That is why one of them decided to fight through the pain, grabbed his axe, and approached Creighton, who could only watch in fury.

The sight of the Lion warrior was enough to motivate the criminal to get up, but only at his knees, that was when the Lion warrior held an edge of his double-bladed axe up to the man's neck. Creighton shot his head up to meet the humanoid's red eyes with his gray-blue ones; the Lion's silver mane stood still, a sign of there being no wind to whistle, only leaving the sound of Lion clan warriors and Grimm ending each other to be.

The he spoke, "You... you are not worth it." The Lion lowered his axe, turning heel, grabbing his large rectangular wooden shield, and walked away, crunching forest debris beneath his two paws.

And it infuriated Creighton.

"Get the fuck back here!" He struggled to his feet. "DON'T YOU CALL ME WORTHLESS!" The criminal grabbed his own axe. " **FUCKING COME BACK OVER HERE AND KILL ME!** " But the Lion warrior was already gone, leaving behind a Creighton going through unexpected emotional turmoil, as the fighting between the Lions and Grimm had finally died out.

He felt exactly the same like at that very moment where he was betrayed.

Expendable, trash, as if he holds no power, as if he has no worth. Like he has no reason to live.

He cursed one last time, yelling at the top of his lungs, cursing the Lion clan species. Then he turned, fuming, sulking, wanting to kill the next thing he sees, proceeding with his journey to killing his old partner. He looked back one last time at the trail which the silver-maned Lion warrior tread upon before storming off in the opposite direction.

All he found was another opening to a clearing, with who he believed to be eight teenagers, or young adults, all armed to the teeth, just like his captors, staring the direction of which he traveled from...

* * *

 _ **(AN: This is going to include a lengthy description of characters from RWBY, so if you're familiar with the anime, then you don't have to really read the whole entirety of the next 8 paragraphs. I'm just describing these character's appearances for those who aren't familiar with RWBY. I'll also be explaining Creighton's appearance as well, so there'll be no need to read that if you can remember him from the Dark Soul's series.)**_

"Uh, should we see what's going on?" Asked Ruby Rose, a young teenage girl with large grey eyes, black, short hair with reddish-tips, staring off at a cliffside with what sounded to be a monstrous feud taking place. She was wearing a red cloak, a black blouse, a black cincher with red lacing and trimming, a black combat skirt, a belt around her waist which had cartridges attached to it, black tights, and black boots. In her hands was an unbelievably large, red-framed scythe, with a silver-like blade.

"No, not really. It sounds like the grimm are just fighting with each other. Possibly with the Lion clan warriors." Another girl answer, Weiss Schnee, sounding a bit annoyed. Her eyes were light-blue, and her lengthy, snow-white hair was tied up in an off-center ponytail. Her attire consisted of thin earrings, an apple-shaped necklace, a white bolero jacket, red inside, with a snowflake marked on the back, a white dress with a combat skirt as well, and white, heel wedged boots, going halfway-up her calfs, lined with red. Her weapon was more sensible in size, being a silver-grey rapier, with a cylinder-like chamber separating the blade and hilt.

"L-Lion clan warriors? They're here?!" Another question came to be, being asked by a timid, blue-eyed, blond boy, Jaune Arc. He wore a white chesplate and shoulder armor, a black hoodie with red-orange sleeves underneath, brown wrist-length gloves, elbow guards, blue pants with a white patch on the left knee, and sneakers. In his left hand was a white heater shield, and in his right was a sword with a blue handle and golden cross-guard.

"They're indigenous to this part of Vale, Jaune. But you shouldn't worry about them, they tend to live in mountainous terrain." Pyrrha Nikos replied, walking up to the boy's side. Her eyes were vividly-green, and her hair was red, almost similar to the shade of blood, with a bronze headpiece, and tied into a waist-length ponytail. Her outfit was a strapless top of armor made of leather split divided vertically, with a bronze v-neck underneath, brown opera-length gloves, a black elastic A-line miniskirt with a red drapery wrapped around it that reached her ankles. On her waist was a belt with a circular bronze plate with a shield and spear symbol on the right and two pouches on the left. Nikos' footwear consisted of bronze greaves starting below her mid-thigh, continuing down into her high-heeled boots, and a pair of cuisses.

In her right hand was what resembled a spear colored gold and red, and in her left was a round golden shield with sections missing on either side, with its sides looking sharp enough to decapitate a head.

"Aw, we could have been fight Lion warriors this _whole time?_ They're so _cuuute!_ " A childish, turquoise-eyed girl, with short, orange hair stated; her name is Nora Valkyrie. She wore a black collared vest ending near her waist, under which were two more layers of clothing: one red and beneath that was blue. There was also a white sleeveless top that formed a tiny heat shape between her breasts and collarbone, armor that began in the middle of her shoulders and neck, ending by her waist. There was a detached sleeve on each arm, pink fingerless gloves on each hand, a pink skirt that ended at mid-thigh, and shoes with a mix of pink and white laces.

Over her shoulders was a large silver war hammer with pink cylindrical-chambers withing the hammer. She was able to hold with a single hand, her left, despite it nearly matching her height.

And to her left was a stoic boy, Lie Ren had who kept to himself, with shiny, black hair tied into a ponytail ending midway at his back, with a hot-pink streak on the left side of his hair; his eyes were pink as well, but light instead of bright. The teenager was wearing a dark green tailcoat that was diagonally-buttoned, and long sleeved with pink cuffs and gold trimming, which went down the right side of his torso and formed a black collar around his neck. His bottoms included white pants and black shoes.

"Get the fuck back here!" The sudden, ruthless voice took the eight young adults by surprise, having expected there to only be the blasting cries of Lion clan warriors and Grimm killing each other, with humans not being included.

"Someone's pissed." Yang Xiao Long stated, a girl with light purple eyes, and long, unruly, blond hair, wearing an orange scarf, a tan vest, with puffy cap-sleeves, black cuffs, gold-piping over a yellow low crop-top, black-fingerless gloves, a brown belt with a pouch marked by a golden burning-heart, black shorts with a back skirt, and knee-high leather platform boots; around her wrists were two golden plated gauntlets that also act as shotguns, being capable of firing red explosive shells.

"DON'T YOU CALL ME WORTHLESS!"

"Whoever he is, I wish he'd stop. His shouting is going to attract more Grimm." An slight olive-toned girl with amber eyes, blue eye shadow flaring upwards, and lengthy, wavy, black hair, added; he name is Blake Belladonna. The girl's attire consisted of a black ribbon tied into a bow sitting on top of her cranium. Blake had on a collar-like scarf around her neck black buttoned vest with coattails, a white sleeveless undershirt that was short enough to reveal her midriff one arm was covered by a long black armband, white shorts that were a bit longer than Yang's, black low-heel boots and stockings, and a metal plate on her back, acting as a holster for he weapon, which was currently in her hands. It holster itself resembled a large cleaver, within it was a black, double-edged katana.

" **FUCKING COME BACK OVER HERE AND KILL ME!** " It was then that the noise of two species who hated humanity faded in volume, disappearing completely, while the man who was shouting had now moved on to ridiculing the Lion clan species at an overwhelming volume. The fact that a man could yell with such force was to a certain degree, amazing, but also unappreciated by the eight future huntsmen, now fearing that this man's shouting was most certainly going to attract unwanted attention, just as Blake had mentioned.

The man eventually went silent, with nothing following suit; there was absolutely no sound at all. No animals, no Grimm, no Lions, nothing dared to make a sound in the end. It was haunting to listen to nothing in a forest, especially when knowing that it was all cause of some man yelling at the top of his lungs, deep inside the wilderness' interior.

It wasn't until Jaune stated, "I think we should go now," that an armored figure entered into the clearing from a trail, leading to direction where the man had been blasting his vocal cords from. He stopped when he saw the eight, armed individuals, all staring right at him.

He was wearing an iron chainmail, chain gloves, and chain leggings, with a gray, sleeveless, tattered tunic marked with a white stag's head on the front, and two brown belts. No one could tell what he looked like, for his whole head and face was concealed by a metallic helmet with a mask to cover his mouth and nose, leaving only his eyes to be visible from the outside. There was a multitude of scratches on the front, some obviously being from a blade, while others appeared to have been made by the claws of an unknown animal; ten holes also marked the metal mask, having been made to make the act of breathing easier.

His weapon was just as rustic as his attire, appearing to be an old, simple waraxe, about two feet long, being made entirely of a blackish-metal, with brown wrappings around the shaft.

The sight of the axe inspired Ruby to stare on with shock and awe, and she whispered, "T-that's the axe of General Lothian."

"... Does that mean he's Lothian?" Jaune inquired, not bothering to look away from the man, who still gazed upon the group.

"No, he's not him. Lothian was a general of Forossa, that axe is most likely and= imitation; this man is clearly a criminal from Mirrah." Weiss' reply was not anyone expected to hear, albeit finding out that one of most legendary general's in all of Remnant was here in Emerald forest would be just as unbelievable.

"What makes you think he's a criminal?"

"His mask is a symbol in Mirrah for criminals who are sentenced to death," Blake was the one to answer Yang, "specifically for mass murderers, dark servants, and undead who are about to turn hollow." The air chilled around everyone; here was a man, a supposed criminal from Mirrah, who had been sentenced to death for either being three of the previously mentioned labels, each being viewed as worse than the Grimm, with being a dark servant or hollow being consider more dangerous.

"How is he here then if he was sentenced to death?" Yang asked bitterly, visibly readying to fight this man.

"He escaped, obviously.-"

"-He's walking towards us." Jaune was quick to bring up this fact, to which everyone else mildly tensed in response. The criminal from Mirrah was indeed walking towards the group; the closer he got, the easier everyone could distinguish the dead, unfazed stare of his cobalt eyes, and the thick strands of graying hair coming out of the sides of his mask.

The criminal stopped when he deemed the distance between him and them perfect for attacking and running away; he could also clearly see all of the preparing for being attacked as well, and he chuckled, loud enough to be heard.

"Now why are you kids looking so scared for? I'm just an old man taking a stroll, that's all."

"While being armed and trespassing on Beacon property? It looks like you're planning something more than taking a mere walk." Pyrrha shot back, sounding stern, and scowling just like the rest; he chuckled again.

"Well now, trespassing am I? You really can't blame me, those schools never make it clear when your trotting on their land and when you're not." No one said anything. "Heh, whatever. Any of you happened to come by a man called Mild-Mannered Pate? Ya know, holds a spear and big shield, probably in his mid-thirties; I happen to be looking for him."

"To kill?" The question immediately pissed the man off, being visible when he shot a dark, dirty look at Weiss, along with his hand tensing up around his axe.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't act like a dunce, you're a criminal from Mirrah. We can all tell that from your mask." A low growl emitted from the man's throat, actually, but not severely, unnerving everyone he stood before.

"Now you're right, Frosty, this mask is-"

"-What did you just call m-"

"-Quiet!" The shout was effective in hushing the now agitated rapier-wielder, and Weiss didn't bother to hide her contempt from the man. "Now, yes, I was arrested, but because I was framed, for a foul crime committed by... **Pate;** he made me look like a damn monster. The guy framed me for being a serial killer, when really it was him."

Again, not a single one of the future-huntsmen bothered to say anything, all choosing to still hold their weapons out, ready to strike. It all agitated him, but also amuse him as well.

"I escaped though, and I plan on finding him. So I'll ask you all again: have any of you heard of Mild-Mannered **Pate**?"

"..."

"..."

"... Are you going to kill him?" Under his mask, he smiled, focusing his attention on the petite girl holding the giant red scythe. He appreciated her tone, unlike Weiss'.

"Yes."

"You just admitted to the planning of killing a man."

"A _monster._ A greedy, _deceiving, manipulative, **monster**_." He graveled out at Blake, feeling his anger coming back. "Is that so bad? To kill a monster?"

"Wouldn't it be better to turn him in? That way, you'll be cleared of being framed while he's punished for what he did." Yang's question rendered the man silent for a few seconds, after which he shook his head.

"No no no, I can't. If I comeback to Mirrah, I'll be killed by my order for sullying their name, even if I prove that I'm innoce-" He stopped to sounding of rushing footsteps coming from behind, prompting him to swing his axe back to preemptively strike.

But unlike with his captors, Creighton was not expecting a black, large mace, beating him in reach and slamming the right side of his head. The force was fierce enough to send him soaring, only to stop by face planting into one of the many oak trees that surrounded the clearing, breaking it in half, and slamming into another tee behind that one, where he fell for about five feet.

And all Creighton could do was express his discomfort by giving an airy grunt, not even bothering to get up and instead deciding to comply with his body's wishes to just lie there, all the while he could here one of the kids shouting at his attacker: "Why would you do that?!"

His answer was, "That guy was a criminal from Mirrah! Couldn't you tell by his mask?!"

"Ohhhh- fuck me." Creighton rolled over to see if he could get a good look at who struck him down.

Unfortunately, a boy with minty green mohawk blocked his line of view, and kicked his head, acting as the blow that would knock Creighton out. The last sound that came to his ears was the flapping of gargantuan wings...


	2. Chapter 2

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, and I do not own any other characters, places, or organizations that appear in this fanfic. They all belong to their respective owners or corporations._**

 ** _I would like to thank the people of have followed/favorited this story so far, and I would like to also thank BlueBlender for being the first person to review this crossover, and I swear to him or her that I will continue on with this crossover so that he or she may, and I quote, "PRAISE/CRITICIZE/BASH YOU [me, not you the reader] TO HELL."_**

 ** _I didn't really needed to quote that, you could have just read the review yourself after all._**

 ** _On with the crossover, good readers._**

* * *

 _"Did you get it?"_

 _"..."_

 _"... I swear if you-"_

 _"-Ho-oh, calm down there. I did get it."_

 _"Good, good... it wasn't easy getting away from those blokes; I was built for fighting, not fleeing."_

 _"I only told you to cause a distraction; you could have done anything you like."_

 _"The only other option I had was to fight them, but you know well that I would have killed them though if I did that."_

 _"And?"_

 _"You fool, if you or I ended up killing everyone who stood in our way up to this point, we'd have knight orders up our damn asses."_

 _"Oh come now, I'm sure they're not as tough as that general you killed."_

 _"..."_

 _"Okay, okay, I apologize. But still, the problem we have here is that you lack self-control."_

 _"Bullshit, if that were true, then how could I have tolerated you for this long? Always picking me for the distractions, always watching you act like a total jackass every single day."_

 _"Okay, first, I always task you with the distractions because you're not suited for stealing without being noticed."_

 _"..."_

 _"Now what about me being jackass?"_

 _"... You always flirt with women, even when we're on a mission; you're so damn full-of-it, always believing you'll succeed in getting what you want. Sometimes it's just too much for me that I just want to beat you until you turn into a submissive bitch..."_

 _"... Well, I'm sorry for grinding your nerves so much. But... it's not healthy, you know, to always be looking down on yourself. I'm just confident, that's all-"_

 _"-That's not what you are though: you're arrogant. A slimy pig who just beds with any pair of legs he deems good enough for him, and persuades, threaten, or even kills to get what he wants. You're that kind of man who prefers **quantity over quality.** "_

 _"And you're old and grouchy."_

 _"You little- I'm only forty-one, damnit."_

 _"Mmm, yes, you are..."_

 _"... Let's just go inside..."_

* * *

Creighton winced when he left his dreams, finding himself lying on a stony, somewhat sharp surface, deciding to push himself up while coughing to clear his dry throat; he could feel a bit of drool had dried up within his mask, further irritating him. He was about to take his helmet off, but stopped when he noticed eight 'kids' he was talking to before being knocked out, with four more new once he didn't recognize, all scattered about inside the cave, all staring right at him.

He was able to distinguish two of the new four boys though: one being a gargantuan, short burnt-orange haired, boy with indigo-eyes, a large, black mace, wearing gray armor with an golden bird marked on the chestpiece, and another, significantly shorter boy, with a cut-sleeved jacket, light-green undershirt, two wrist bracers, gray pants, brown boots, and a minty-green mohawk, holding a black curved dagger in each hand, with a cylindrical chamber as the top of their hilts.

Immediately, Creighton wanted throttle both of them for attacking him, but he fought the urge back, reluctantly concluding that it would be much safer to do nothing but talk. He was about to do so when a rumble bellowed deep within him, also being heard by everyone.

Creighton was hungry, but he did not acknowledge it. Instead, he asked, "Why did you two attack me?"

The tall boy scoffed, "Cause we thought you were a criminal from Mirrah."

"Thought?"

"They told us you were framed." The mohawk boy's answer was chuckled at by Creighton.

"But I bet you don't believe them, do you?" As expected by the older man, the boy did not answer him, no one answered him. Everyone just continued to stare at him, he shook his head, "You don't have to answer me; I know what you would have said." Creighton got up on his two feet, with his old bones cracking at such an unhealthy volume that everyone around almost thought he knees would have gone out right there in front of them. But he stood at his full height with no problem, clearly showing himself to be the third tallest among the group.

The blond boy in white armor and mace-wielder were taller than him, with the blond just barely beating Creighton in height. He was equal to the height of another boy with a halberd, shoulder-length silver-blue hair, and blue eyes.

"Now, I would like to know two things: where's my axe, and why are we inside this cave?" Creighton notice everyone glancing over to entrance of the cave, inspiring him to look over as well. He could already see that night had come, illuminating the green grass of a colossal clearing, being coated by a white shine from their imperfect moon; an extremely displeasing idea popped in his head. "Did you little bastards leave it in that damn clearing?"

"No."

"Then where is it?"

"Outside the cave..." Creighton continued to stare at the little scythe-wielder until she looked down at her feet to avoid his glare.

"Why didn't you bring it in?"

"We dropped it." It was his turn to scoff, being deeper and more guttural than the larger boy's. Creighton was able to see out of the corner of his right eye that he angered the blond girl.

"We were chased by a damn wyvern, asshole."

"Pfft- a wyvern? You're telling that you, twelve huntsmen-in-training, got scared by a single wyvern?!"

"Hey, the thing was huge! And we weren't exactly in the best condition to take that thing on!" The blond boy felt a sense of fear when the man directed his stare at him, looking as if he about to inflict grievous bodily harm upon the boy. But Creighton just sighed, looked back at the cave entrance, longing his vision towards the depths of the grass where he could the a familiar glint of electrical metal. It prompted for the creation of plan in the man's head.

"... Is it still out there?"

"Not too long before you woke up, a goliath was about to enter the cave. But the wyvern snatched it up." Creighton gently nodded at the redhead's words, not taking his eyes off of the sparkling blade.

"That's a big wyvern." Creighton acknowledged, contemplating if he should go through with his daring and unhealthy thoughts, conjuring a hurricane of awful plans in terms of there being a high survival chance. It would be paint a bad image of his mentality if he goes through with any of them.

"See, I told you." He ignored the blond boy, deciding to go through with a plan involving one of the few things he does best. Creighton looked back at the twelve hunters and huntresses-in-training, feeling a bit infuriated he had to do it though, for them at least.

"Alright... listen, you kids saved me. Even though two of you," his eyes darted over to the two boys of subject, "did attack me, you younglings still carried me with you after that, and brought me to this cave. I owe a debt to all of you." He turned back to the entrance. "And I hate being in debt, so let me repay all of you right now: I'm going to act as a distraction."

"... Wait, what-"

"-I'm going to run out there, grab my axe, and get that wyvern to chase my ass, which at that point, you kiddies just run, run to Beacon academy-"

"-Hold on!" Creighton looked back at the group to see what troubled them.

"What?"

"That... you just can't do that!" The scythe-wielder simply told him, which Creighton raised a brow at.

"So I am to believe there's a better idea then? Cause we could always fight it, if that's what you **_all_** want. I'm up for it, I'm not so sure any of you would consider that to be a _better_ idea. "

"Oh, and sacrificing yourself is?" One of the four male newcomers asked, being a squinting, brunette swordsman in tan-colored armor with black underclothing, along with a scarf wrapped around his neck.

At this point in their dilemma, Creighton decided he's done having all these kids' bullshit in general. "Yes."

"But-"

"-Now that's enough out of you!" He shouted at the blond boy, nearly blowing his and everyone else' eardrums from having to endure such sheer volume in a small cave. "I am going out there, whether any of you like it or not! By the Gods- that damn wyvern probably flew away for all we know. I could just walk out there, grab my axe, and a wyvern might not come down to scorch me alive. That's be fucking amazing, wouldn't it?!"

"But if it is there and chases you, do you honestly think you outrun it out in a field like that?!" Hearing the ridiculing tone of the pale petite girl was enough for a dark, almost black, but blue glow to form around Creighton, having just felt a vessel pop within him from his peaking fury. The interior of the cave turned from cold to freezing as the Mirrah knight stomped over to the little female; no one even dared to stand in his way, and she did not back away either, out of fear that Creighton may lash out at her.

So Weiss just looked away, turning her head left to stare at the cave's wall, trying to ignore the fact that the man stopped and was now leaning down as an effort to look the girl in the eyes, having no care that he was desecrating her personal space.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, huh? Here I am, giving you, all these kids, a chance to live, but it's like no one wants it." He grabbed her right shoulder, digging his fingers into her bolero jacket, almost breaking the surface with cold chainmail.

"Why the fuck would you care if I can't outrun that wyvern? If I die, you, and the rest of these kids, run. Just, **run.** I'm fucking positive that no one here would care if I die by its fire and scales, cause in the end, you all get to live. The only downside is that I don't get to bring Pate to justice."

He strengthened the grip, intent on getting a response out of the girl by hurting her. But it failed. with her wincing, but not making a sound. "This is what I hate about everyone in these four kingdoms; they don't know a good plan when it's standing right in front of their fucking **faces**." Creighton shove her forward on the last word, emphasizing his feelings while she fell onto the wet cavernous floor.

"Does anyone else have anything to add; poke more holes in this plan?" Once again, no one answered Creighton; they just stared at him, some with anger, and others with uncertainty. He approved of both gazes however, and marched forward to the cave's exit. His last words were as follows: "Don't run until the wyvern comes for me."

And with that, he left the cave, gently crushing wet, shiny, small green blades beneath even more chainmail. Soft winds blew his tattered tunic and cape to the left, while the cracked moon's light reflected off of Creighton's scratched, dented helmet, almost giving off the image of his head being nothing more than a weak star in the dark sky. Creighton could feel his heart beating not increasing, but growing in strength, almost becoming audible enough to be heard from his chest.

Knowing that a wyvern could be here, flying in the night, pushed him to look at the night sky to see if any starts were being blocked out by a large, angry, soaring mass. But there was nothing; Creighton almost felt confident that there was no wyvern here anymore.

So when he stopped to see his axe lying in the grass before him, and plucked it off of the ground, to feel the surface suddenly quake for a moment with an everlasting roar to follow suit; Creighton bolted straight forward

He did not look back, he refused to look back at it. The sounds of its stomping rampaging towards him shoved his heart into a rush of labor, forcing blood to swim throughout his body to strengthen everything about him, even though he was only using his legs to sprint from the great beast.

But no matter how hard he tried, its clawed, scaled feet charged forward, getting louder as he ran. The wyvern let out what sounded like a mechanical roar, with a large, fiery, orange stream lighting the clearing, giving Creighton the sight of his shadow in front of him, running like he was, with a long, thick neck and disfigured, horned, reptilian head attached at the end, casting a shadow as well.

The horrifying sight itself was enough to stop Creighton, not because he chose to, but due to a rock, hidden within the grass, tripping the distracted knight of exile, causing him to faceplant the second time that day, letting go of his axe as the sound of a chasing giant came to a halt.

Creighton rolled onto his back to his right, and reached out for his axe, but his arm was stopped when a titanic, three clawed hand, attached to a wing's tip, gently but with haste, covered his arm, effectively restraining him. The man could have sworn his heart started to cry actual tears when he saw this.

He looked straight up to see the red wyvern; it's head was definitely disfigured. The whole left side of it was just an amalgamation of horns, with one that was about the height of Creighton himself protruding from where its left eye should have been, while the right side was literally human skin that broke off into scales, with black, stringy hair sprouting from the top of its head. The eye was that of a human's as well, and was a third of the head's size.

It proceeded to smile at him, with its bottom row of teeth being all human white molers, and the top being the familiar yellowish-fangs of a traditional wyvern.

Creighton never felt more traumatized in his life when the beast lowered its face to the point where the tip of its warm snout rubbed against his abdomen, taking a sniff, and whispering in a feminine voice: **"** You're mine. **"**

He wanted to scream bloody Mary when she opened her mouth to reveal a tongue, with a human torso that had two arms, and a head with the face of a chubby baby, reaching out to grab Creighton.

Its fingertips were just centimeters away when a loud crack broke the air in the clearing, and the wyvern's only eye exploded, spilling ungodly fluids of multiple shades all over the Mirrah outlaw. She pulled her claw off of his arm as she reared her head up into the air to let out a hoarse scream of horrors, giving Creighton the freedom to grab his axe and run back from the wyvern.

He could see off in the distance that the cave entrance where he came from was the group of future hunters and huntresses whom he was trying to save. But they disobeyed his plan, and in turn had instead chose to open fire a barrage of bullets and explosives all over the wyvern, while half of them chose to charge the beast.

It all left Creighton with two options: stay and fight, or runaway. And even though he would have preferred latter, Creighton knew that would be suicide, to flee into a forest filled with creatures not as dangerous as this wyvern, but still threatening, and also with the given fact that the sun had already set. The darkness would definitely make it extremely difficult and insane to traverse the forest alone.

So Creighton charged forward, raising his axe up high and gashing its blade into the creature's chest as it started to take flight. One mighty flap was all it took for lift off, and several more to raise it over the cliff that the cave led into. Creighton cursed himself for not having let go earlier, looking up the neck of the wyvern, panting as he looked down upon the surface at the huntsmen-to-be stopped firing. There was nothing he could do now but climb up the wyvern.

It proved to be easy at first as the beast breathed scorching flames in the direction where the group had been firing from, giving Creighton enough time to climb halfway up the wyvern's neck. But the sudden feeling of riding up a mountain in a cart at speeds which no vehicle could match caught him off-guard, lasting for a few seconds, and ending when Creighton's axe was was launched out of the demonic beast's chest, taking him along.

He finally started screaming his lungs out when he realized the wyvern flew him hundreds of feet up in the air, so far up that they pierced the darkened clouds, blocking his view of the earth beneath him; he was now free falling from a height that he could not possibly survive. To make matters worst, he saw the winged beast had circled from a lower height, in order to fly up, directly toward him, with its maw opened to swallow him full; the humanoid attached to her tongue had its arms reaching out, as if it were a child about to hug their own mother and father.

Creighton stopped screaming as one of the most lunatic ideas ever sprouted in his mindscape. He could not think of anything else to do but it, so if this were to be his last stand, why not go through with yet another insane plan that would either end in success or death?

Those cobalt eyes immediately shut when the visions of repressed memories started to hurt him.

And what followed was another scream, but of utter hatred for all of life, specifically wyverns. Creighton opened up, looking crazed, and braced himself as he fell into the open terror that controls the sky of Emerald forest.

It was dark, wet, it was the foulest stench he ever encountered, and the feeling of a million tiny fingers stroking his body, with crying filling up the inside of the wyvern. So he thrashed about, swinging the axe against guts, organs, and bones, sending electrical currents throughout the monster's flesh. He felt like he just cleaved a beating organ in two, with a low bellowing beginning and growing in a faltering roar.

Creighton felt like he was floating in a pool, filled with arms, legs, torsos of many species, along with tiny hands, all floating in blood.

Then it slammed onto the ground, with bones breaking apart and blood spilling from arteries and veins, falling upon Creighton, who swore again out of pain. He started writhe as a method to deal the suffering, and as an effort to get out of the wyvern, who he hoped was now dead.

"I think he killed it!" The voice, muffled by the barrier of scales between him and the outside world, caught Creighton's attention, looking over to the open wound which he delivered to the creature while it was grounded. A sliver of light was crawling into the orifice of ripped flesh, prompting the man to wiggle his way over to it, and insert his axe through the wound. And with a mighty pull downwards, Creighton extended the wound, spilling him out in a cascade of blood, bones, severed appendages of its food, and dozens of baby hands from the demonic wyvern.

He rolled over the ground, stopping on his back, painted from head to toe with liquid red, sensing some of it trailing down the inside of his mask and staining his skin, some even getting into his mouth. It made him cough and flinch until it all splattered on the inside of his mask, giving him a foul stench to smell as well. But Creighton simply did not have the energy to care enough to remove his mask.

He could feel an all-too comfortable surge of more power flowing into him.

"Hey!" Creighton groaned, almost whimpering when he heard the voice of a certain blond boy; he rolled his head left where the sound of rushing footsteps came from, seeing that the gargantuan mace-wielder had already reached him, and was offering him a hand to help him up. Creighton had no desire to touch the armored trainee, but he still accepted his open palm, grunting as he was pulled up on his feet.

"You smell like shit." Creighton was blinded by fury when he heard that comment, but the white rage had been building up when he chose to fight the wyvern; hearing those four words only release it.

"What... the **fuck was that?!** " The whole group cringed from the deep shout, all knowing what was most likely to follow. "Why, for the sake of the damn Gods, did none of you follow through with the plan?!"

"Because your plan was bullshit!" The blond girl shouted back, not willing to just stand there and take Creighton's verbal beatdown.

"It was meant to **protect** all of you!-"

"-You were gonna fucking die if we ran!"

"So?!" Creighton turned to the boy with the mohawk. "I told all of you that if I die, you all are to still run!-"

"-Why can't you just being fucking grateful we saved your life?!" He felt his chest boom with another heart beat of anger when he heard the pale girl's question, looking over to see her icy glare, freezing his helmet over with annoyance.

"... Why did you all bother help me?" He answered with another question, feeling like he was going to explode if he was met with silence this time.

But the little scythe-wielder made sure that didn't happen; "Because we're suppose to protect each other." A sense of danger befell upon her when Creighton looked at her with his thousand-yard glare, but she did not stop. "Hunters and huntresses see to it that peace stays strong in our world, they're suppose to protect the world, protect everyone, from evil." Creighton forced his eyes to look at the bloodies grass, trying not to move his head as he felt that flame within him dying out. "Whether you like it or not, you're a part of this world."

His breath quickly fell silent, wanting to tell her, tell everyone about how wrong he felt she was

"You're right," but Creighton did not do so, "I'm sorry... you kids did a good job." He picked up his bloodied axe, shaking off the small baby hands that still held on to the shaft. "I think we should all leave now." Creighton said, looking over at the head of the lifeless, grisly wyvern. "I don't want to be near this thing anymore." He informed them, while walking over to its face.

"Then why are you..." The blond boy trailed off as they all watched Creighton grab the largest fang in the abomination's mouth, just to rip it out with his left hand, as if it were nothing.

"This is the first... **_thing_** I killed in Vale; I want a memento from it." He stated, looking over yellow fang, being twice as long and twice as wide as his arm. A bit of blood squirted out of its root and landed on his gray tunic.

"... This guy's crazy-"

"-What was that?" Creighton asked loudly, shooting his head up at the group, startling the girl who whispered. "I couldn't hear you too well; my hearing is just as bad as that travesty of mankind that lies on the top your head." He grinned with unparalleled glee when he spotted the flicker of anger in her eyes.

" _... What did you say?_ "

"Did I frickin' stutter? You're hair is just as bad as-" Creighton stopped when the blond bombshell slammed her fist into his gut., with such power that if he was not him, then he would have been sure all of his organs would have just ruptured right then and there. But instead, Creighton just took it, not even budging an inch as he braced himself when he first saw her cock her fist back. His smile grew ever more at the sight of befuddled and horrified lilac eyes. "Punching a forty-five year-old man, huh? _Pathetic_."

When in actuality, she was indeed befuddled by the fact that Creighton withstood her blow, but she, and the whole group who, were able to see behind Creighton, were shaken out of their wits when they saw a long, skinless, human arm reach out of the abominated wyvern's mouth, grabbing Creighton by the head and slamming him onto the ground. Smashing and smashing, until the criminal passed out...


	3. Chapter 3

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, they all belong to their respective owners or corporations._**

 ** _The monster from the last chapter will have an explanation in this chapter, but somewhat of a weak one, because I'm planning on having the monster presence being better explained later on in the story._**

 ** _I'm also a bit worried that you're all going to be mad about the decision I made in this chapter, but there's not much I can do about that._**

 ** _Enjoy._**

 ** _Update:_** ** _A review of criticism for this chapter made me think for a bit, not too long after I published this chapter. So I decided to update a bit, in respect for the flaws the reviewer pointed out in this story. The review did point out that if the advanced species from Halo and Mass Effect were going to be in this series, then the presence of monsters like dragons, Grimm, Darkspawn, Great Ones, etc, should be easy to deal with, so I would like to point out that the species from Halo and Mass Effect are going to be a few levels behind on the technological scale, but slightly more advanced than the humans. Not to the point that they'd be able to deal with the monsters like they were flies though.  
_**

 ** _This was a very quick update as well, not too long after I read the review, so again, enjoy._**

 ** _Update 2:_** ** _This is no longer a multicrossover, therefore, this chapter has been updated to be void of all other characters not from Dark Souls or RWBY._**

* * *

 _"How far do we have left to go?"_

 _"Not much, the city is at the end of this valley, sweetie. Once we're there, you sleep in the room as much as you want."_

 _"Yay..."_

 _"... Yeah."_

 _"Dad... what happened last night?"_

 _"Oh, a group of... krogan, came over and tried to steal our merchandise. But those two took care of them. You were right about hiring them: they might charge a lot, but they're good at what they do."_

 _"Good, good..."_

 _"Is something wrong, Dawn?"_

 _"... Yeah... I don't think we should keep them again when we go back."_

 _"Why?"_

 _"That... one, with the axe, he always stares at me, like he's undressing me with his eyes."_

 _"Tch, really now?"_

 _"Yes dad. I also didn't like how he treated that faunus yesterday."_

 _"He was an undead, Dawn, everyone treats them differently. Those from lands like Mirrah, Thedas, Sanghelios, and Dosiac tend to harm them the most. The last time I checked, our two guards are from Mirrah._

 _"Yeah, but, killing an undead who isn't hollow is ille-"_

 _"-Dawn, I know its illegal here, but so is attempted murder; he was trying to kill me. Greintoc was just doing what he was hired to do."_

 _"... To_ _ **torture**_ _undead? He ripped out both of that faunus' eyes and force-fed them to him."_

 _"... Okay, Dawn, if you don't trust them anymore, then I-_ **CAAAGGHH!** "

 _"DAD!"_

 _"Creighton- GET THE DAMN GIRL!"_

 _"YOU MONSTERS,_ _ **YOU FUCKING-"**_

 _ **CLIIIIISH**_

 _"... There, did it."_

 _"Wonderful... wonderful..."_

 _"Well, let's see what they have left for sale..."_

* * *

Creighton woke up with a dry, throat-scraping cough, awaking to the weakened odor left behind by the insides of a great beast, having coated everything he wore. After the coughing fit stopped, the middle-age criminal examined his surrounding, seeing he had woken up in a hospital bed, in his full armor, including his helmet-mask, with all the blood that was splattered on it from yesterday now being crusty.

As for the room itself, there was nothing. No medical equipment, no pictures of any kind, and most importantly, no axe. There was just a window giving Creighton a glorious of the campus of Beacon academy, the medical bed he woke up on, a single chair, and a nightstand which his large wyvern tooth sat upon.

Many questions were running through his head, but the one that he cared about the most was _'Where's my axe?_ _'_ Not why the academy hadn't provided him with any medical equipment, not how long he had been out. No, Creighton wanted his legendary axe, the axe he has slain so many with, not giving mercy. So he got out of the bed, picked his wyvern tooth up- which he intended to use as a weapon substitution in case he meets any opposition on the journey to retrieve his axe.

He stopped though, right when he reached out for the doors handle, it turned, and the door struck Creighton, bouncing it back as he simply took it, not even flinching. It stopped at its frame, leaving him in silence, until someone, the smooth voice of a human male stated: "... I see you're awake." Creighton merely rolled his eyes and pulled the door open with unnecessary force creating a hole in the wall by the handle smashing into it. "... I'll presume that was an accident."

Creighton had to look up at the lanky man with a light complexion; his gray hair was tousled, his eyebrows were black, he had sharp facial features, and his brown eyes were barely covered by shaded-glass spectacles. He wore a dark-green scarf with a purple cross symbol around his neck, an unzipped black suit over a buttoned vest, a green under shirt, green pants, and black trouser shoes. In one hand was a cane, and in the other was a mug, filled with an unknown liquid, which Creighton already disliked for its strange smell.

"It's good to see you've made a full recovery, a bit impressive if I'm to be honest." Creighton instinctively wanted to ask where his weapon was, but hearing that little addition in the end of his sentence agitated him too much to ask. He only heard this man speak three times so far, and every time, it sounded like sarcasm to Creighton.

" _A bit impressive?_ All that happened to me was that something... knocked me out after I killed that demonic wyvern. That's all."

"Oh no, much more happened to you than that." Creighton didn't bother to ask what he meant by that. "You managed to outrun a horde of Grimm and Lion clan warriors, were tackled off a fifty-foot cliff by one of the Lions, struck on the head by a mace twice the size of your cranium, then kicked on head as well, and later on in the night, th _e_ Flying Horror of Vale flew you up to an estimated height of eight hundred to twelve hundred hundred feet. We don't exactly know what happened immediately after that, bu-"

"-The beast swallowed me whole. Then I killed her by slicing her heart up, and cleaved myself a way out of its chest after her landed." The lanky man stood there, gently smiling, which actually angered Creighton even more, but not enough for his to actually want to hurt the man. "How did you know all the rest of what happened to me though?"

"We have cameras installed in Emerald forest."

"... Okay, cool, good man, it's smart to keep a constant surveillance at such a dangerous forest." Creighton nodded his head and expressing so. "Now, tell me, where is my axe?"

"You're... axe, is in safe hands. But, for the sake of our students, and our faculty, we cannot give it to you until you answer a few questions I have for you." Creighton sighed, feeling the air being sucked out of his lungs. Knowing this place to be Beacon academy, he knew it would be extremely difficult to get his axe back by force, so Creighton was left with the other option of complying with whatever the academy wanted out of him, if he wanted to get his axe back the easy way.

"Okay, I'll answer your questions. But I want you to know that you should've taken this," Creighton held up his wyvern tooth, "as well, if you wanted to keep everyone in your academy safe." The man still held onto his light smile.

"Please, have a seat." Creighton nodded and went back to his medical bed, whereas the lanky man took the only chair for himself.

"Now, before we begin, I, on behalf of all who call Vale their home, thank you, for helping us with dispatching the Flying Horror of Vale. We had no idea that-"

"-She."

" _..._ Why do you refer to it as a 'She?'"

" _She_ spoke to me, talked with the seductive voice of a woman, so I just... assume it was a female wyvern."

"I see... well _,_ again thank you. _She's_ been terrorizing Vale for over fifty-two years, never being stopped, occasionally scorching villages, cities, and our own people, the council had been trying to keep her being a Great One secret, up until last night, that is. In fact, if you had not trespassed on Beacon property, I fear those to-be students would not have become such."

" _Well, it's such an honor._ " Creighton chose only gruff sarcasm, not wanting to question why Vale as a whole could not stop such a beast. He knew how difficult it to hunt down a wyvern, or any flying beast that matched the size of her last night. Yes, they may be gargantuan, but with that, combined with their ability to fly, they always tend to choose the most hostile environments as their homes, making it difficult for anyone to hunt them down. Some will lie atop a great mountain, treacherous because of its unstable nature, or a forest, filled with many other horrors that can kill you before you could even find the home of the flying beast.

"Now, my name is Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy." Creighton was tempted to repeat what he just said himself, but it would be stale at this point.

"Creighton the Wanderer," he replied "or, you can also call me Creighton of Mirrah, or just Creighton. It doesn't matter to me." The lanky man nodded.

"Well, Creighton, I would ask you what you were doing in Emerald forest in the first place, but those twelve students-to-be already answered that question for you." Creighton chuckled, ready to hear how they were going to tell his story. "According to them, you were once a part of the Stag Order in Mirrah, and that a man, whom you call, Mild-Mannered Pate, framed you for his crimes of being a serial killer. You were later arrested, and... obviously, telling from your mask, were sentenced to death."

Creighton nodded softly, and added: "Right so far."

"But... and again, obviously, you somehow escaped. And you've managed to make your way to Vale, where this Pate character is currently hiding out at, who you plan on killing. After which, you'll do Monty-knows what, because you most certainly cannot return to Mirrah, even if you prove your innocence to the Kingdom, the Stag Order would still you for bringing shame to their name."

Once more, Creighton nodded. "Yeah, those kids sure nailed it on the head."

"... It is quite a story, to be honest with you."

"And I would not blame nor hate you if you don't believe me either. It is a story that not many may believe is true, and to be speaking the truth, I know that I look and sound like a shady man. Even if you took my mask off, I'd still brush off as being untrustworthy, it's happened to me in the past. And I'll just put out there and say I have indeed killed others before, but those were turians during the war between Mirrah and Palavan."

"... Would you like to know what I think, Creighton?"

"No." He was quick to respond, leaving Ozpin in a befuddle state, in which he did, rarely in his life, found himself being unable to respond. "... Okay."

"... I see... well, Creighton, I do happen to find your story to be a bit hard to believe. But what you did yesterday, going through with a plan you devised where you distracted that beast so that those twelve students-to-be could run back to Beacon... not very many individuals of evil would never dare to even think of such a plan. Even though you were doing it just to repay what you called a _'debt',_ it was one the most noble and selfless acts I have ever seen in quite a while."

Creighton gave a sinister smile to Ozpin, being hidden under his mask. "So... what now? May I have axe and continue my search for Pate." The headmaster took his first sip of his drink ever since he entered the room.

"That is one of the options."

"Ooo, there are _options_ now." Creighton chuckled after.

"Creighton the Wanderer... yesterday, you've demonstrated so many qualities that many students here at Beacon should uphold themselves to acquire: strength, courage, nobleness, a willingness to put your life on the line for the survival of others in a dire situation, and having- or at least _showing_ no fear."

Creighton's smile faded into disbelief at thought of what this was all leading up to.

"How would you like to attend Beacon Academy?"

"... I'm forty-five years old."

"And?"

"You don't have an age limit for your students?" Ozpin shook his head, with his sharp feature softening.

"You're never too old to become a huntsman."

"What if it was someone who's a hundred years old?"

"What is their species? Where are they from? Are they undead, or possibly a Lord of Cin-"

"-Okay, I get it. What about the others who make their living here? I'm sure almost all of them would rather see me gone then attend Beacon.

"Well, Creighton, I'm afraid you are right about that. Almost all of the faculty here at Beacon were even against my decision to offer you the chance to attend the academy."

"And yet you're doing that right now." He heard the lanky man chuckle, being almost non-audible.

"Yes, yes, they're still not too keen of the concept of you being framed."

Creighton nodded; "Well, that's smart of them if you asked me; questioning everything can be a bit bad though. But your faculty follows a ' _better safe than sorry'_ nature, I admire that." Again, he heard another chuckle escape Ozpin's lip, being a bit more foreboding this time.

"Now don't think I'm not like the rest of my staff, if you do end up being a rather... _unruly individual,_ here at Beacon, I won't hesitate to send you back to Mirrah." The smile beneath Crieghton's mask only grew evermore, almost tempted to cause some trouble right now. But that can wait for the man.

"So then, Creighton of Mirrah, what is your choice? You can continue on with your hunt for this Mild-Mannered Pate, and I will not share the news of your presence in Vale to Mirrah. I'll even offer you some maps to help you on your journey."

"... Well, let me ask you this, _headmaster,_ why should I trust you not to deport me back to Mirrah? No matter what I do?" Creighton inquired. The man was a headmaster of one of the most prestigious huntsmen-training academies in all of Remnant, with a position such as that, Creighton did not doubt that Ozpin had some connections to the government of Vale. He'd actually be surprised if the man did not have any friends in the higher-powers. With them by his side, Ozpin could just at any given moment, attack him with a large number of forces, and potentially knock him out and send him back to Mirrah. Or just simply kill him too.

"To be frank with you, Creighton, I have not given any reason for you to trust me, I know that."

"That's really fucking helping you, boy. Ya know, if you do send me back to Mirrah, then I wish you good luck with finding Pate too."

"Well, I believe you just gave yourself a reason to trust me." Creighton stared blankly, confused for a brief moment, until he realized what Ozpin meant. "You're the only man here who knows Pate, and we both know Mirrah's too busy to share with me such information about one of their many criminals. His presence in Vale is indeed worrisome, if you are speaking the truth."

"... Yeah, but you could always ask me for a description of Pate, and then still deport me."

"You are correct, but then you could also mislead us with that description, and then we'd be out there on a wild goose chase while you're back in Mirrah, potentially dead." Creighton started to grow irritated with Ozpin, the man was simply too clever for the criminal, people like him are always put high on his mental lists of threats.

"Well, I would like you to know that I would never lie to you about that, I'm perfectly fine if Pate just dies by anyone. I just want him to suffer for what he did to me, I want justice."

"And I believe you, Creighton." The Mirrahn twitched under his mask, absolutely irritated from how comfortable Ozpin was with him. "That's why I'm giving you the choice to continue your hunt for Pate; I believe you'll take care of him." Creighton did not say anything else, he just stared at the headmaster, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Or, attend Beacon Academy, and potentially graduate to become a hunstman." Then there was that option. Creighton believed it wasn't hard to be a huntsman of the four axis kingdoms, all he would need to do was kill, kill, and kill, along with the occasional mission of protecting or escorting a person, place, or thing. And even then, all he believed he would need to do was just simply kill. Creighton didn't care if becoming a huntsman meant he had to do what that girl told him last night, even if it hurt him. And then there was Pate, who could potentially head for another kingdom at any moment. But Creighton doubted it would be hard to find him again; the criminal did after all find the whereabouts of Mild-Mannered Pate while he was incarcerated. "You may choose to leave at any time though, if you wish to find Pate sooner, our curriculum is four years, by that time, Pate may have vanished off the face of Remnant."

Four years? Creighton knew it was going to take awhile to graduate, but four years would definitely give Pate more than enough time to cover his trail completely. By then, Creighton could end up dead as well, while Pate could still be alive. Unless Creighton were to become an undead that is, but then it would be even more challenging to hunt down his former partner.

Yet, the technology today has made it much easier for one to track down another, much more than it would have been thirty years ago. And as a hunter, Creighton could request permission from the council to help his with simply tracking down Pate, they would not need to supply the criminal with other huntsmen or equipment, just help him with getting the man's location and let Creighton himself handle the rest.

"... Alright windbag, I choose Beacon." The idea of killing for money as well was also a huge perk for Creighton also.

"Excellent, then I suggest we go and attend the announcing of the newest teams now; we... preemptively assigned you to one." Creighton slightly grimaced at Ozpin's words.

"Teams?"

"Yes, _teams_ , Creighton." Ozpin responded getting up from his chair. "Oh, and don't worry about your axe. We'll have it returned to your dorm room after the announcement." Creighton payed half of his attention to what the headmaster informed him, mindlessly, yet keeping a solid form of not being tire, getting up from his bed and grabbing his wyvern tooth.

"After the ceremony, I would appreciate you to give us a description of Pate though. If he is definitely in Vale, then it is the council's responsibility to apprehend the man and bring him into custody, before he causes any conflict within our borders, so it would be beneficial if you gave us the description of the real Pate." Creighton nodded, smiling to that request actually, while he continued to ponder about the teams.

The worry of being betrayed again was filling his head, yet Creighton's mind was also coming back with thoughts of doubt, that he would not be left behind another time. He decided this was a poor time to think about such a subject though, these were students anyway, training to become huntsmen, Creighton held high beliefs that they would not betray him. So Creighton forced himself to focus on other matters as he and the headmaster left the medical building, walking out on an empty campus of Beacon.

"Where are the students?" He asked, taking of his helmet-mask, feeling fresh wind gently breezing over his face for the first time since yesterday morning; it unexpectedly pleasing to him.

"They're most likely at the auditorium, waiting for the introductions to likely." Ozpin replied nonchalantly, taking another sip from his mug. "Oh, but before we reach our destination, there's one more question I almost forgot to ask."

"What?"

"How did you come to obtain General Lothian's axe?"

"..."

* * *

"Dude, when is this going to start?"

"At ten A.M. dude, just like it said on our scrolls."

"It's already twelve-pass ten,he just left us all standing up here."

"Whatever man."

"Gah, you're going to be fun guy to work with."

"I feel like you should save that comment for someone els-"

"-Don't talk about that, I don't want to be reminded about it."

"Ugh, yeah, why would Ozzy choose us anyway? It's not like there are two more teams like us to choose from."

"Pfft, I can't believe you two are whining about this."

"Whining about potentially getting a fifth member of our team who's a psychotic old-man that rips the teeth out of wyverns."

"I don't think what chased yesterday was really a wyvern."

"Okay, whatever it was, he still ripped its tooth out.-"

"-Hey, think about it man: we're getting a fifth teammate- that's already a perk- who is capable of diving into... what it was last night, and killing it from the inside out. That was some pretty fucking great improvisation right there."

"... Okay, yeah, I'll admit that what he pulled off last night pretty fucking cool. But still, the guy could still be an actual criminal! Don't tell me you believed his story!"

"... His story was a bit far-fetched."

"Yeah, it was a bit shady."

"I agree."

"..."

"... What? I just agreed, didn't I?"

"Yeah..."

"But, I should point this out, that his plan last night, to run out the cave and distract that monster, so that we can safely run back to Beacon, was a pretty selfless thing for a criminal to do. So maybe he's not as bad as you two think."

"... He didn't do it save us though, he was doing as a way to _'pay-off his debt_ _'_ for us."

"Then it was a _selfless_ way to pay-off a debt, isn't it? And in all honesty, it was more like he owed _me_ a debt, because ya know... I was the one who actually ran over to him to pick him up when that **thing** first appeared."

"... Go fuck yourself."

"Hey, I'm just saying, no one else ran over to him but me-"

"-That girl- the one with the scythe- shouted out about us needing to get him! She clearly wanted to save him too!"

"Well... maybe I didn't hear her! That wyvern was roaring the whole-"

"-It wasn't wyvern-"

"-Yes it was! It had the damn body of a wyvern, it breathed fire like a wyvern, it was a damn **wyvern!** "

"What kind of a wyvern has the skin of a human, with thousands of... **baby hands,** filling its insides?! And don't forget about what came out its mouth and attacked him! That was fucking horrifying!"

"Yeah, but that makes our old man the one of the greatest baddasses in history. How many people have you met that killed a wyvern?"

"Don't call him our old man, we don't even know if he accepted-"

"-The offer? Cause we can ask him now; there he is, walking in with Ozpin."

"Shit." The mohawk boy simply reacted with one word, looking over to where his friend in dark blue armor was pointing to where the man was, with helmet in his right hand, walking alongside their lanky headmaster.

"And he brought that damn tooth with him." The boy in tan armor brought up, drawing everyone's attention the impossible sharp and large tooth he held onto wit his left hand. "He's probably going to turn it into a weapon by super-gluing a damn stick onto it."

"He could also have denied Ozpin's offer and just decided to watch the introduction of the new teams." The mohawk boy suggested, then followed by the headmaster pointing over to the four boys. The man looked over to them, nodded, and started to walk in their direction, pushing through the crowd, not caring who he disturbed. In fact, everyone in the crowd moved out of their way for him, feeling the aged aura of a veteran overpower their greenhorn personalities.

"Way to jinx it." The mace wielder informed him.

"You wanted him on our team!"

"I forgot to say thanks." He replied with a mocking smile, infuriating the shorter dagger-user. But the gargantuan payed that no mind, looking back at the man.

Then came the unanticipated comment, "He looks good for being forty-five," made by the team's bluenette. "Or maybe it's just me, I don't know."

 _ **(A/N: Imagine Creighton having a face similar to Chris Jericho, as in he has about as much wrinkles as Jericho does. Because I honestly just can't believe how well Chris Jericho's looks overall for a man who's forty-six by the time this fanfic is written. It's crazy, but that could just be me and Jericho just looks like how every man closely looks like when he reaches his mid-forties.)**_

"... You know what- yeah. He does look younger than forty-five." The mace wielder agreed, looking at the top of his head to see the long, somewhat straight, aging black hair.. "He's graying a bit though, and its long too. I think it barely beats yours, Sky." He informed the halberd user, who just merely waves it off.

"His laugh lines are actually kind of deep also." The squinting tan-armored swordsman brought up.

"Are you all fucking serious?!" The mohawk boy exploded, causing his friends to flinch. "Talking about how _damn_ good he looks for a man in his mid-forties?!"

"... It's not like we're falling for him or anything. We're just talking about how he looks better than most guys do in their mid-forties." The gargantuan mace-wielder claimed.

No one said a thing after, for the rest of the time it took the man to make his way at least. It was when he arrived up the stage that the four boys were able to see an ungodly amount of scars on his graying-stubbled face and neck, indicating that there was more damaged tissue waiting to be seen all over his body. The two most noticeable scars was one long, horizontal slash across his throat, and another resembling more of a cracking circle on his forehead.

He felt a bit awkward that they were just staring at him with dumbfounded shock, but Creighton was not going to let that ruin his chance of _"bonding"_ with his teammates. So he cleared his throat, and said: "Howdy."

"... Did you just use _'howdy?_ _'_ "

"Is that a problem?" Creighton asked, already feeling the desire to not even bother befriending them.

The mohawk boy just shrugged; "People from Mirrah just usually don't say _howdy_."

"Well _I'm sorry,_ I'm just trying to be friendly."

"A man who's skin is made out of serrated knives coated in poison would be more friendly then you." The swordsman in tan-armor stated, to which Creighton's frown deepened, and his cobalt eyes glistened with fake gloom.

"That... you kids... you guys are growing up to be meaner and meaner everyday, I swear." A light snicker came from Sky, weakening Creighton's false sadness. "But... you're right, a poison-knife man would be more friendly than me."

"You're not suppose to agree with that!" The mohawk boy informed him with slight agitation.

"Mmph, I'm already letting you boys down, _sooooorry_." Now both Sky and the giant mace-wielder started to snigger, further adding fuel to that fire that was the mohawk and squinting boy's irritation with Creighton.

He was about to talk once more, but sudden silence that befell the crowd when Ozpin took the stage, standing in front of the rookie teams, unnerved him so much that he immediately turned his attention to the wall behind the crowd, going silent just like them, with his thousand-yard stare taking hold of him. He placed both of his hands behind his back, but could not grab them with each other due to the wyvern tooth in his left and his steel mask in his right. The four boys actually followed suit as well, holding their hands behind their back, readying for the introductions.

"Students of Beacon Academy, it is my pleasure to introduce our first-year students." Creighton was mildly impressed with how that simple sentence was met with a thunderous applause, only because of old experiences with watching kings, queens, saints, and legendary generals being applauded and cheered on by literally hundreds of thousands citizens, soldiers and sorcerers.

Creighton saw a glow suddenly smother the stage, obviously coming from behind the three teams of first-years. He stole a quick glance from behind to see what was the biggest screen he had ever seen so far in his life, with five pictures of him and the four boys, with their names under each image. Unlike their pictures, being them all looking directly at the camera with a colored background behind them, Creighton's was a side-shot of his head, hidden from the world by his steel mask- save for his cobalt eyes, when he was wandering throughout Emerald forest. He could see a bit of healthy oak trees and shrubs in the background.

"First we have Russel Thrush." The boy with the minty-green mohawk.

"Cardin Winchester." The gargantuan, short auburn haired mace-wielder.

"Dove Bronzewing." The brunette swordsmen in tan-armor with combed-over hair.

"Sky Lark." The pale bluenette halbedier in dark-blue armor.

"Creighton of Mirrah." Him, it was the first time ever he heard a crowd cheer after hearing his name. But he still continued with his unfocused gaze, for the applause held no meaning to him at that moment.

"The five of you retrieved the black bishop pieces, and assisted with the defeating the Flying Horror of Vale." Creighton, as much as it pained him to mentally admit it, found the twelve children's interference with him and that flying horror being the point that allowed him to attack the wyvern. So even though he dealt the final blow, he could not have done it without them. Though Creighton would have appreciated it if Ozpin had acknowledged it just now.

"From this day forward, you will work together as Team CCRDL, led by... Creighton of Mirrah!" That was not what the four boys predicted, that was not what Creighton anticipated, with all five of them going a bit slack-jawed and wide-eyed upon hearing that he was going to lead them from here-on-in. And the crowd reacted with cheers and applause.

Creighton would have just stood there like statue if it wasn't for Cardin touching his arm, motioning to him that they had to walk off the raised stage so the next team can be introduced. His composure returned and he followed the gargantuan knight off to the sidelines of the amphitheater with Dove, Sky and Russel, where he decided to adorn his cold steel mask again, looking through its eye-holes to see the next four standing on the stage with their pictures on the screen. He could hear the squinting swordman _"tch"_ in reaction of seeing his leader wearing that symbol of criminals.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, the four of you retrieved the white rook pieces and assisted with defeating the Flying Horror of Vale. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." Creighton felt a twinge of envy when he saw Nora hug Lie as the crowd applauded the group. "Led by... Jaune Arc!" The boy had the same reaction of Creighton: looking dumbfounded that he was going to have to lead a team into battle. But a trait that set both of those reactions apart is recognized by the old axe-wielder's callous eyes; fear of being a leader.

"Heh heh heh, I bet my axe that boy's going to make a shitty leader; kid looks like he's about to piss his pants from fear." He graveled out, with a throbbing sensation of amusement when he saw Pyrrha shoulder bumping he leader, only to knock him down instead.

"Tch, you should have seen him when that wyvern first appeared. He screamed like a girl when that thing just smiled at us." Creighton gulp from Russel's news, remembering how it grinned at him last night. The words it whispered didn't help him with forgetting the encounter either.

"I wanted to scream when that thing felt me up with her snout and opened her mouth, showing that disgusting humanoid growing out of her tongue." Dove, Cardin, and Sky all blanched upon hearing Creighton's brush with the beast, while Russel only grimaced, but still found the notion of having the wyvern touching him with her snout utterly horrifying, let alone being mere centimeters away from the human growth.

"Wait... _her?_ " Sky inquired as JNPR walked off the stage for the next group to come up.

"It sounds crazy, I know, but the thing actually talked to me; it had a woman's voice, so I assume it was a female." Creighton shook his head as he recite the words: "You're mine, that's what she said before opening her mouth."

"... Fucking shit."

"Language, Cardin."

The mace-wielder flung his arms in the air as the other three made an effort to snigger quietly, trying to not attract any unwanted attention from the now quiet crowd. "What the hell-"

"-Quiet, the next team's up." Creighton cut him off, infuriating the boy even further. And he reluctantly complied, slowly turning his head in a light, but still sulking manner, to look at the four girls who stood before Headmaster Ozpin.

"And finally: Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. You four retrieved the white knight pieces and assisted with the defeat of the Flying Horror of Vale. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY, led by... Ruby Rose!" Creighton smiled under his mask when seeing the petite redhead mimicking his and Jaune's reaction, but to more of an intense degree of absolute disbelief. He was also smiling because Weiss Schnee- who became his least favorite person last night- was in absolute defeat.

"She was the one who shot the wyvern's eye out."

"... Wait... who?" Creighton gruffly questioned his halberdier, watching as the crowd cheered while Yang embraced the petite leader in a hug; another beat of jealousy slammed the inside of his rib-cage, prompting a sharp exhale.

"Ruby."

"Oh... oh- so she has on them... hybrid weapons?"

"Yeah, her scythe can turn into a rifle." Creighton scoffed at Russel, not intending to be rude to him though.

"I hate killing things from a range, it's dissatisfying. I prefer to kill my enemy up close and personal, it fills me up with pleasure." His team bit their lips, looking awkwardly at each other, feeling uncomfortable now knowing their leader is a sadist. "Also, I'm not sure you saw it, but a scar on my forehead was from a bullet. The turian sniped me from a damn tower, I almost died too. But I lived, and the look on his face after seeing me up in that tower with him was priceless. Hehehe, that's another reason why I hate guns."

"That's a _compelling argument_ right there. Also, nice story." Creighton only chuckled from Sky's remark.

"I have more if you'd like to hear them."

Before anyone could say no, Ozpin took the stage one last time to say: "Due to the unprecedented events of yesterday's initiation occupying our time, we will continue on with the other initiations today." Creighton took that as news being he can leave now.

"Alright, I'm gonna go to the workshop to get a handle for this," he held up the wyvern tooth, almost falling speechless from inspecting from the giant fang's glory.

"I **fucking** told y'all he was gonna do it! I fucking told you-"

"-LANGUAGE!" Creighton shot out, glaring at Dove with annoyance. "Children shouldn't use such vulgar words."

"Fucking- we're not children man, stop calling us that!"

"I'll stop calling all of you children if you all stop swearing like sailors." Creighton knew no one was going to say anything, he knew no one could respond to a demand like that. But Creighton also considered the possibility that they'll still continue to use colorful language, which he actually didn't mind at all.

He just loves messing with young people, being a total dick to them.

"You know, we have to actually watch the initiation, Creighton. It's mandatory too." The old criminal instantly grew disgruntled from hearing Cardin, because of having to watch the initiation, not because it was Cardin who told him about it.

But he wasn't gonna do it, the idea did sound entertaining at all with the criminal. He'd rather go through the actual initiation then watch it. So he just replied with a simple "No", and turned heel, only to bump into Ozpin who was standing behind him, knocking his mug out of his hand. Most of the contents ended up spilling onto Creighton's tunic, increasing his rage significantly to the point that he wanted to just throttle the lanky headmaster right there and now.

Instead he held onto his composure, and stated, "Great, now I have to wash this foul liquid off my tunic." He brushed pass an Ozpin astonished by the fact that Creighton refused to watch the other initiations, leaving with him the rest of Creighton's teammates who were laughing at the old man's insult to what Ozpin was drinking.

Which actually shocked the headmaster even more was his comment; "How could you call coffee foul?..."

"... I think our four years here were just screwed over by him."

"Don't worry, I'll be back to tell you about Pate!"

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** ** _Now, I know people are mad about this decision of mine, of putting Creighton in team CRDL, but it's just perfect to me._**

 ** _I know I could make it work if I put him on RWBY or JNPR, yet the idea of Creighton, a total bastard, being placed on a team who are just like him, total bastards, the potential was too much for me to resist._**

 ** _Now I should make it clear that CRDL will be described in-depth in this story, unlike in the anime, and they'll also end up being nicer later in the story, so they won't act like total assholes for the whole length of this fanfic._**

 ** _But there will still be moments where Creighton acts like a total dick._**

 ** _Until next time, dear readers._**


	4. Chapter 4

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, and I do not own any other characters, places, or organizations that appear in this fanfic. They all belong to their respective owners or corporations._**

 ** _Update:_** ** _This is no longer a multicrossover, therefore, this chapter has been updated to be void of all other characters not from Dark Souls or RWBY._**

* * *

 _"I'm sorry sirs, but I can't let you two in with that weapon."_

 _"I bet you your life that there are mercenaries in this club right now with guns out in the open, sleeping in their damn holsters."_

 _"Ah..."_

 _"Yeah, I'm right, aren't I?"_

 _"Okay... sir, whether it's true or not, I still can let the both of you in as long as you have your weapons."_

 _"Please, excuse my friend here, he's bit agitated today due to a conduit giving us trouble this morning. The bastard ended blasting a fireball off at him."_

 _"Mmph, that sucks sir, but I still can't let you two in."_

 _"Of course, of course, I understand, it's your job to make sure no one who isn't a part of that local gang, what's their name?... DESTINY- that's it! I bet they come in with weaponry, and you know it too."_

 _"I don't know what you're talking about, now again, please leave. There are people here who would like to enter the club."_

 _"Ah, yes, I hear this is quite a popular place for the young adults who like to live to the fullest on this filthy island. You must make a lot of money with being a bouncer for this establishment, good thing too, it's not easy having to support a family of five on an island like this..."  
_

 _"... Leave, now."_

 _"Ooo, think he's scared now. I mean, if I were to be powerless and had to live in Disown, I'd always be scared, but you were once a hunter, you shouldn't have to worry about being pushed around."_

 _"..."_

 _"You should instead be scared about what could happen to your family while you're out at work. Sure she's an ex-soldier of Atlas as well, but that's it, she doesn't have an aura, she doesn't know and pyromancy, no hexes, no-"_

 _"- I swear if you touched her or any of my little ones I'll-"_

 _"-Now control yourself, don't let my friend's ramblings berserk you. We'd have to deal with you if that happened, and imagine them losing their father and her losing a loving husband. Or... whatever you savages say."_

 _"I... I-"_

 _"-And in all honesty, I could have killed you right now if I wanted to, he could have decapitated your wife and force fed her brain to your children if he wanted to. And we would get away with it because Omega is not in control by anyone. It's lawless sanctuary for the mercenaries. It's lawless sanctuary for the murderers. It's lawless sanctuary for the rapists, the bandits, the thieves, the drug trafficers, the undead, the dark servants, all evil that exists on Remnant, this colossal island is a sanctuary for them. And YET for some incomprehensible reason, people still come here and settle down, like you."_

 _"..."_

 _"We, can take your souls for ourselves, if we wanted to, and Remnant would glorify us like Gods... but we won't do it. Instead, all we want to do, is go into this here club, and talk with your boss, that's all. We won't kill him either, that way you don't have to worry about finding another job."_

 _"..."_

 _"But we will kill anyone, we will kill anything actually, that stands in our way, that stops us from getting what we desire."_

 _"..."_

 _"You know, this is a stereotypical phrase to say in a situation like this, but it **really** does well with guiding sentient beings like you: is this all worth it? Are you willing to stand in our way, all for a paycheck?"_

 _"..."_

 _"Just... let us in. Let us in, but deny everyone who's behind us passage into this club. Let us in, and ignore the screaming, the spraying of bullets, the firing of plasma, ignore everything you hear, and just stare at everyone out here with a smile. And tell them, that it's nothing to worry about. You don't have to include that last part though, not like a single one of these heathens will care about it."_

 _"..."_

 _"It's your decision, you have the power to save everyone you love, even if we don't go after them."_

 _"... Come in..."_

* * *

She didn't intend to anger anyone, but she knew it could still anger someone, and despite knowing this, she still went through with this idea of hers, because she doubted whoever is enraged by the plan would do something extreme in vengeance. And in a sense, he didn't do anything extreme. He did not attack her, but he did threaten her, which she was grateful for because again, no one got hurt. But it was still a foul encounter.

Ruby Rose, dressed in her Beacon uniform startled her partner, Weiss, by blowing a whistle, causing her to fall out of her bed in fright, after which Ruby proceeded to yell, "Good morning team RWBY!" Weiss was not pleased, as to be expected.

"What in the world is wrong with you?!"

"Now that you're awake, we can officially begin our first order of-"

 _ **SLAMMMM!**_

Ruby stopped when the sudden cry of a door being slammed open came from the hallway blasted throughout the dorm building, the first sign that someone was irritated. What followed were the sounds of stomping footsteps trailing to their dorm room door, whoever it was then attacked their door with brutal knocking.

"Fucking- open this damn door you asshole!" Ruby blanched when she heard the hoarse voice of the wyvern slayer.

"Oh well that's fucking great, Creighton's throwing another hissy-fit."

"It's probably because your little dunce of a sister woke him up!" Weiss pointed out to Yang, glaring over at a shamefaced Ruby. She didn't appreciate the Schnee girl saying such a thing about her younger sibling, even if it was most likely true. But even then, Yang was even more displeased with the fact Creighton was outside their door with malicious intent, who could potentially hurt her little Ruby out of spite. The man was still out there as well, rapping on the door with fury.

"He's not going to leave," Blake spoke out, sounding indifferent despite the situation. But she did scowl a bit at the man behind their dorm room door, "Unless he talks to someone that is, or finds another way into our room."

"Unless he can find a way pass the electronic lock, I'm sure he'll be out there forever.-"

As if on cue, Creighton kicked open their room's door, proving Weiss wrong, and accidentally ripping it off of one of its metal hinges in the process. It was the first time any of them saw him out of his armor, wearing instead the standard Beacon uniform for its male students. But he was still wearing his steel mask though, and in one scarred hand was his axe, while in the other was the wyvern tooth he took as a prize, now holding onto it by what used to be the tip of the tooth, now having been carved into a small handle.

"Who. Blew. That **cursed** whistle?" Creighton gratingly asked, with his cobalt eyes looking as lifeless as usual. Behind him Team RWBY could see JNPR, looking at was happening from the room across from theirs.

"What the fuck Creighton?!" Yang ignored his question, instead shouting another, more rhetorical question at the significantly older man. "Why would you fucking break down our door?!"

"Why would you little shitstains blow a damn whistle while everyone's asleep?!" Creighton shot back, walking into RWBY's room without their expressed permission. "I'm an old man, I need my damn sleep!"

"You slept in your Beacon uniform?" Blake asked, not caring if this wasn't the time to ask such a question.

"I took what you would call a _'power-nap'_ after putting this thing on. Now who has the fucking whistle?" Creighton looked around until his eyes fell upon Ruby, just standing a few feet away from him, with her left hand behind her back. She could see the desire to harm her well-being in his eyes as he lumbered towards the petite leader, only to be stopped by Yang stepping in between him and her.

"Don't you **fucking** touch her." Creighton smiled when hearing the venom in the brawler's command, when seeing a familiar glint of an indomitable defender in her eyes. He wasn't intimidated at all, and he knew, unfortunately for him, that it wouldn't be easy to intimidate Yang either, so that she may move out of his way.

"Then tell her to give me the whistle, and this won't get ugly at all." He ordered, sounding more sinister, more direful than usual. It was enough to make Ruby wince and hold out her left hand; on the palm was what Creighton so desperately wanted.

"H-here, take it." The smile under his mask broke from the quick submission, Creighton had hope for more resistance than this. He ended up having to hold his wyvern tooth in the same hand with his axe just to take the metal pea whistle. He then crushed it, and dropped the crumpled pieces onto the floor in front of Ruby, all the while staring into her eyes, somewhat demoralizing her.

"Good girl, thank you for your cooperation." He smoothed out, turning heel and leaving the room, refraining from quarreling any further with the furious Yang drilling a hole in him with her gaze. But he did feel like snidely saying: "Don't miss out on breakfast now, ya here? You kids should be eating three meals a day." And he pulled their damaged door shut, being gentle so that it won't break any further.

"You're such an asshole, Creighton." Cardin informed his leader, having been standing outside room along with Dove, Russel, and Sky, all dressed in their uniforms, all having listened to their leader's outburst in RWBY's dorm room. There were other students around as well, some sticking their heads our of the door frames, some were just walking by, then there was JNPR of course, who Creighton was more focused than responding to Cardin.

"Something wrong, kids?" Immediately as he asked the question, Pyrrha Nikos shut the door on him, taking that as an answer. "Hm, guess that's a yes... oh well, let's eat breakfast. We don't have much time till classes."

"We have forty minutes." Dove deadpanned.

"... Okay, cool, then let's go eat." Dove with-held a sigh of exhaustion.

That was the first thing all of team CCRDL agreed on though: go eat breakfast. The five wandered throughout the hallway of their dorm building until finding the exit, then wandered again throughout the campus of Beacon, with Creighton's helmet and axe casting reflections from the morning sun.

"Are you seriously going to walk around with your weapons out?"

"Yes." Was Creighton simple answer to Dove, not bothering to look at him. "They don't have _compact_ forms, in case you haven't noticed, and I don't have any scabbards either."

"Why don't you use your locker then? You know, like the rest of us?"Cardin questioned, somewhat insulting Creighton, as if he's abnormal. But the man already knew that.

"I don't trust lockers. Ever since I got my axe, I've kept it by my side, never putting it somewhere too far from me. And I plan on doing the same with my wyvern tooth." Creighton explained, not caring if it sounded reasonable or not to his team. "Also, there isn't any rules here at Beacon that say I can't walk around with my weapons out."

"Okay... yeah, that... may be true. But professors and even students here aren't really going to like it when they see you walking through the halls, holding two weapons."

"Heh heh heh, oh Russel, everyone has told me how they don't appreciate me walking about with my axe out in the open. They've been doing so for the last twenty years of my life, and you know what I tell them?" Russel didn't want to guess, he didn't want to amuse Creighton.

So that's why Sky answered the question instead. "Don't... worry about it?"

"Spot on." Creighton replied, sounding a bit proud that his halberdier was able to guess correctly. Dove rubbed his brow in annoyance while Cardin and Russel a worried shared a glance with each other, but they did not say anything else.

The team traveled the rest of the distance in silence, eventually, CCRDL reached the heavily populated dining hall of Beacon academy; the mixed aroma of many breakfast foodstuff Creighton had long forgotten about actually caused him to moan in pleasure. Hearing the man moan in such a way further strengthened to uncomfortable-meter in everyone around him, except for his teammates, they a craziness-meter for him instead.

"What was that?"

"My reaction to how good it smells in here." Creighton bluntly stated, answering Cardin's question. The leader didn't bother to wait for another question as he rushed to the line of students, startling a female student who was last in line, having yelped due to believing Creighton was about to attack her. But he didn't, and she felt like an idiot for yelping.

"Gah, he's going to kill someone at this place one day, I fucking know it."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration Russ, I think he'll just fight someone instead." Lark stated nonchalantly as the team followed their leader in the line, grabbing their trays and stacking up food stuff to their liking.

"Who's fighting who now?" Creighton asked, having heard only a blur of what Sky said; the man was too busy gazing upon foodstuff he had bot seen and never seen before. Yet he hadn't chose anything yet.

"No one"

"Oh, okay, hey, what is that, with the criss-cross pattern?" Creighton inquired of his team, pointing a circle of leavened dough.

The question itself left Russel, Sky, Dove, and Cardin dumbstruck for three seconds, until Lark answered, "That's... a waffle."

"Are they good?"

"Uh... yeah, especially when you eat them with syrup." Creighton turned his head to Sky with the widest, and yet still somehow cold, eyes, the halberdier, or anyone in CCRDL had ever seen.

"No... you're shitting me... they have syrup here? I **love** syrup; I've only had that shit on three separate occasion in my life so far." What Creighton said was even shocking.

"... Uh- yeah, it's right there." Cardin pointed towards a see-through container filled with the sugary, sticky liquid. Creighton had decided what he will have for breakfast; he took a waffle, poured syrup all over it, and left the line.

"I'll find us a spot." He told his team, who all just nodded him off.

Now Creighton faced the challenge of finding a suitable location for his team to eat at, which actually wasn't as difficult as he expected. Within three seconds he spotted a table, free of any students, and rushed to it just as fast as he did to get in line. He laid his tray onto the metal surface, took his seat and straightaway took off his steel mask, then laid both of his weapons onto the middle of the table. Creighton move don with cutting his waffle up faster than he could ever imagine himself being capable.

It was after the third bite when he heard the voice: "Excuse me, but may we sit here?" Creighton looked up to see two students holding trays: both were awfully tall, one being a skinny, nine-foot tall boy, with pale skin, long, thin arms, long fingers, icy-blue eyes, and white, shoulder-length hair. The other was just a gargantuan, possibly over ten-feet tall, and older, but his appearance was overall similar to the other boy, possibly making them brothers. The only difference is that his hair was silver, and long enough to reached his waist, and for some reason, he was standing only on his knees.

Creighton considered rejecting the two so that he and his team can have the table to themselves, but for some reason he could not even begin to fathom, these two students felt all right to him.

So he allowed it. "Nah, you two may sit here, just know that four more are going to be joining me soon." The two gave him small smiles and thanked him, sitting down across from him and laying their trays of breakfast down.

"Not to be rude, but must we have to always address you as Creighton of Mirrah?" The shorter one asked before taking a bite out of his sausage sandwich.

"Oh no, you don't have to. You can also call me Creighton the Wanderer, or just Creighton."

"And Creighton the Wyvern Slayer, how about that?" He inquired again, getting a chuckle and the shake of the head from Creighton.

"Heh, yeah, I guess I can be called that now. Yeah, you guys can use that name too if you want. How about you two, what are your names?"

The shorter of the two nodded; "I am Lothric, and this is my older brother, Lorian." Creighton looked over to the giant human, mystified by him not talking at all so far. "If you are wondering why he does not speak, it is because he is mute. We share a curse together, and it was weakened him with muteness, and taking away his ability to walk on his two own feet."

"... Damn."

And Lothric nodded once again; "Yes," with the gargantuan growling in agreement, grimacing.

"What is the curse, if you don't mind me asking."

"Our family... they bred me into being the perfect heir of the Flame, but failed, bestowing upon me with the curse as consequence." The statement actually shocked Creighton, he had no idea a heir to the flame could be bred, let alone the failure being curse as such. "But my elder brother here decided to help me with burdening the curse, making him this."

"... I'm sorry. It sounds... it sounds as if you were cheated on your life before your birth."

"Hm, yes, the Flame, the Age of Fire, despite being hailed as our salvation, doomed us both with a curse." It left all three of them in lifeless silence, with that void being filled with the many other conversations taking place in the dining hall. Creighton was about to speak one again, but stopped with the arrival of his teammates, all carrying tray, stacked with foodstuff.

"Hey." Cardin threw towards the two, sitting next to his leader. "Creighton giving you guys any trouble?" The question would have further enraged Creighton, had he not believe it to be a simple joke.

"No, he has been pleasant so far." Lothric responded, with Lorian nodding.

"Why would you ask them that question?"

"Creighton... I asked them that because... even though I've known you for a single day, I'm pretty sure you're the type of man who _gives_ trouble, not _take_ trouble." The criminal stayed silent, knowing that Cardin was more right than he could ever know.

"Whatever, guys, these two are-"

"-Lothric and Lorian." Russel interjected, earning a confused glower from his leader. "We watched the initiations Creighton, like we were suppose to."

Creighton didn't say anything, he just shook his head, and went back to eating his waffle. There was no more desire to talk for him, luckily he had no need to force himself to do so since the rest of his team was here to talk with Lothric and Lorian. They kept themselves entertained with each other, discussing topics that Creighton would just listen to, and even then he was barely putting an effort into doing so.

Then there was nothing to listen too, because everyone went silent when Creighton felt the sensation of something splattering onto his back, even touching his hair, leaving behind the feeling of some kind of sticky liquid while he heard a feminine gasp; he had a good idea of what happened, cursing himself for having such terrible luck lately.

"I'msosorryI-" Creighton held up a hand, effectively silencing whoever it was, while he stared at his wyvern tooth. A mean idea, yet amusing to him, came to him: to simply dick around with whoever it was, just like with his teammates. He picked it up by its handle, got up from his seat, and turned to whoever was behind him with a bloodcurdling, yet fake scowl, to see a small, brunette faunus, with brown eyes and lengthy brown-furred rabbit ears; Creighton found her to be attractive, but was sure she would not feel the same towards him. Between them was a fallen tray with now dirty foodstuff. "I-I-I said I was sorry."

Creighton grinned; "Tch tch tch, where I come, saying _'_ _sorry'_ doesn't **cut** it." He realized that if he were holding his axe, then Creighton would have just made a pun. He reminded himself to make sure he was holding it next time he used that.

It was when he took a step forward that all his fun came to a crashing halt; another student, an irate boy with dark skin, taller, leaner, and more muscular than Creighton. His coppery hair was messy, and his eyes were pure white, suggesting to him that the boy might be blind, with a furrowed brow indicating he didn't appreciate what Creighton said to the faunus. There was even a scar across his lip that the criminal almost didn't notice, due to the tissue nearly matching the complexion of the student.

"Step off, old man." Creighton actually wanted to maim this student now, to show him that he was the one who should back away. Without even thinking, his callous grip around his wyvern tooth tightened. He did not care for the consequences, save for being deported, then he cared little about, Ozpin won't deport him just because he punched a student.

So he just slugged the young, potentially blind student, not even bothering to surge his right fist with aura, there was no need to. The tall student fell back onto the light-brown marble floor, with everyone watching in utter shock while a crack emitted right when he slugged the student; Creighton could hear Lorian grunt is shock, while the faunus retreated to her friend on the floor, tending to him.

"Creighton- it's not worth it man!" The voice of Cardin fortunately stopped the middle-aged man before he could move on with his assault, prompting him to look over at the Winchester. "Besides, it's time we go to class." Creighton looked at the young mace-wielder for a few seconds before shifting back to the potentially blind boy and faunus, feeling the need to say something as he looked at the tall student on the floor, where he belongs, staring right back with sheer contempt for Creighton's presence staying at Beacon for four years. The sight of a small blood-stream flowing down his jaw cause him to smile as well; he guessed this was enough for now at least.

"Keep a tighter grip on your tray from now on. Or next time it'll be **you,** _wabbit_ " And he left on that, grabbing what belonged to him, adorned his steel mask, and leaving behind the two students with his team, with Cole and Zeke deciding to follow tail...

* * *

"What'll you be having today?"

"Oh, I'll have some scotch if you have any."

"..."

"Is... something wrong."

"Uh- oh, n-nothing. Your voice just... I didn't expect you to sound like that."

"Heh heh, I tend to hear that a lot over my travels."

"Where do you travel?"

"Well aren't you a little curious bar keeper?"

"I-I didn't mean to offend you or anything, I just-"

"-Don't worry your pretty face, I wasn't offended. People just usually avoid asking me questions, I think its because of my weapons. I was honestly surprised none of you have told me to leave because of them."

"Oh no, we get a lot of hunters and huntresses here, they always carry weapons with them so we just allow it."

"Hm, yes, but their weapons have compact forms, don't they? Mine don't."

"You didn't give add one?"

"Add one?... Oh, no, I didn't make my weapons at all actually. They were just given to me."

"By who?"

"My father, he used these during his time as a knight of the Supreme Acanth."

"Supreme Acanth?"

"They're an order of knights in Mirrah, and their job is to defend the largest mountain in Mirrah from desecration: the Supreme Acanth. It's a highly-valued landmark to the people."

"Wow."

"Keh, yes, _wow_... now, you asked me about my travels? They're not really fun to be honest, that's if you don't enjoy the thrill of danger."

"Oh..."

"I don't mean to sound like one of those... adrenaline junkies. It's just that I'm a target for a lot of prejudice where ever I go. Last year I was almost beheaded in Sanghelios, we treasure hunters are just intolerable to them. Though I really shouldn't me mad at the elites, no one appreciates being a man invading their temples in search for gold and jewels."

"..."

"Heh, it's similar to what's happening right now, if you were to really ponder on it, Lau."

"... How do you know my name?"

"Well, I can't tell you how, but it was easy. I expected much more of a challenge to figuring out the identity of an ex-White Fang."

"... I think you need to leave, now."

"Oh little **_rat,_** I'm afraid that isn't possible. Unless you are willing to discuss with me about that safe on the seconds level of this establishment."

"Is that what this is all about? What's inside that fucking safe?"

"Oh you naive child, what an example of how you don't deserve what you keep hidden from the world inside that metal cube. To be honest I could just end your life right here and kill every witness, then break that safe open myself. But I'm not that type of person; I decided to give you the chance to live and give me the code to that safe."

"It has been in my family for generations! I'm not just gonna give it to you!"

"Hey! Is this man giving you trouble, Lau?"

"How about you don't get yourself involved with this, faunus, it'll be a shame for your precious Yenja to lose her loving mate."

"What did you just?- All right buddy, I think you need to go now."

"Hm, it's surprising how a bouncer in Vale is more hostile than one in Disown."

"What the hell is that suppose- _**CAAAGGGHH!**_ "

"Oh Monty- HE JUST KILLED HIM!"

"Last chance sweetie, give me the code, or everyone here will become mine..."

* * *

Never in his life, would Creighton ever believe, that a single person can be bored to the point that he or she would want to hurt themselves just for a thrill, that is how he felt at least.

This was his first class: Grimm Studies, to teach the students of grimm's behavior and their weaknesses, or that is what Creighton would have expected this professor to be talking about.

The professor was Peter Port, a burly man, middle-aged like Creighton but older, with gray hair, a large gray mustache, and thick eyebrows. He wore a double-breasted burgundy suit with gold piping and buttons, and brownish-red pants, tucked into olive boots. And boy did Creighton find the man uninteresting, even a bit narcissistic for now he was telling a story about himself and his accomplishments when he was young, enjoying doing so as well.

"Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man. 'Peter' he told me."

It was then that Creighton stopped listening to the story, having enough of this man right then and there. But what could he do? Tell Port to shut up and teach them something already? He could, it was a bit appealing to Creighton actually, be he could not say "shut up" to the professor, he was sure the consequences would definitely be unfair for telling Port to stop telling a story no one wanted to hear.

Out of the corner of his eye, Creighton spotted an anomaly, a student, behaving like a total buffoon: Ruby Rose. It was hard to see, but he managed to catch glimpse of an insulting drawing she made of Port, calling him 'Poop' instead; the barely-existing respect the criminal-knight had for Yang and Blake was killed when he heard them laugh in reaction, while Weiss was only annoyed.

"Ah-heh-hmm," Port noticed their snickering, unamused himself by them disrupting his class, though Creighton was not going to consider this a class if Port kept on rambling on like this for the next four years, "In the end, the Beowolf proved to-"

A whimper of distress, like a child knowing he or she was about to die, filled the room, silencing Port and the class effectively. But yet, no one was able to determine the origin, and the person did not admit to it, so Port resumed telling his story.

It was Creighton, obviously, he wanted it all to stop. His team knew it was him too because they were sitting right next to him, but none of them pointed him out when he was heard, due to sympathizing with his childish agony, which they too were going through; Sky actually patted his leader's back, and whispered sweet music: "Shh, it's okay, Port won't be able to hurt you any longer soon."

And Creighton shot back: "No... no, we have to deal with him for the next four years. He'll be torturing us as long as he wants, enjoying it." He looked over at RWBY to see how they were doing, as Port finished with his story.

"The moral of a story? A true huntsman must be honorable, a true huntsman must be dependable, a true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wi-

"-EW, stop picking your nose, Ruby Rose, its fucking foul."

The leader froze still, as a huge majority of the class, including the rest of CCRDL, broke out in a guffaw at the petite scythe-wielder, causing her to flush red and shrivel in her seat from embarrassment. Yang, Blake, and JNPR glowered over at Creighton though, irritated by the man doing something so cruel, or at least that is why he believed them to be scowling at him.

"Mister Creighton!" The laughter dies out when Port shouts, grabbing Creighton's smiling attention. "Since you seem to be in a _good_ mood today, how about you demonstrate to the whole class what it means to be a true hunter." He frowned soon after, Creighton was not in the mood to demonstrate _anything_ at all, even if he looked happy for a second, it was just a lie.

Yet them Creighton feared and hated it that Port might be a man who does not take 'no' for an answer, even if Creighton knows himself that he has nothing what Port addressed, in his opinion, the qualities of a true huntsman should exhibit; "Okay."

"Hmph, you could show a little more enthusiasm."

"And you could stand to lose a few pounds." If the lecture hall was not dead-silent, it was now, Creighton's audacity made sure of it. He would have told him to stop flirting with his female students as well, but he decided he did enough damage already.

"Hm, I'll admit, I was much more fit during my primal years, but besides that, step up, and face your opponent." Port gestured to a cage in front of his lecture hall, where a creature hidden in darkness dwelled within.

The criminal bit his enraged tongue as his left-bottom eyelid twitched sporadically at the professor, essentially making him look like the lesser man. But he restrained that anger threatening to breakout, donning his steel mask, gripping the handles of his axe and wyvern tooth, and walking out in front of the whole class, stopping before his caged opponent.

"You can do it Cray!-"

"-Shut up, Sky." Lark was demoralized by his leader, shrinking in his seat in embarrassment as Dove shook his head at Creighton's crass nature.

"Creighton, wouldn't you rather fight in your armor, rather than the uniform?" Port inquired, standing by the cage, holding onto his blunderbuss-axe, prepared to release the beast. "We can give you time to adorn your chainmail."

And Creighton, without any emotion replied; "No, I'm good."

"Would it kill you to show just a bit of passion, Creighton?" All Port got in response was the deathly-stare of the criminal knight, actually worrying the professor; never in his life has he seen such inhumane eyes like Creighton's.

"Open the cage, and I'll show you how _passionate_ I can be, old man."

"You're being a bit immature, Creighton."

"Oh? And flirting with your female students _isn't?_ " For a second time, the whole lecture hall went quiet entirely; the Wanderer decided to bring it up anyway, yet Port's expression did not change even the slightest, the Mirrahn had to give him props for having a great poker-face.

"Let the match begin!" Instead of acknowledging what Creighton brought up, Port instead swung his weapon down, breaking a chain that in turn cause the cage door to open, which out of the prison came a boarbatusk, hog-like grimm, plated with bones, its four eyes glowed with a red-orange hue, squealing with delight and smiling, letting its saliva stain the floor as it gazed upon the negativity that surrounded Creighton; he was smiling too actually, gripping the carved-out handle of his wyvern tooth.

Within a moments-notice, both the criminal and boarbatusk charged, with the end result being Creighton taking the full brunt of the grimm's charge, catching it as its tusks pushed onto the chaimail covering his abdomen, skidding him back a few inches, inciting him to grunt. The Wanderer, still holding onto the boarbatusk, raised his wyvern tooth high into the air above the squealing beast's back, and brought it back down, clubbing the spinal column with such force that it could be heard breaking with a gut-wrenching crack.

The squealing remained the same as the borbatusk collapsed onto its belly, but was imbued with what could be assumed to be whimpering too. Creighton's grin enlarged at the pain, proceeding strike the boarbatusk again with his wyvern tooth, but on the head this time, breaking open the grimm's mask and causing a fierce stream of burning blood to spew out, getting all over Creighton's uniform, hands, weapons, mask, and unfortunately his right eye.

" **AW FUCK!** " It was enough to actually stagger Creighton back from the boarbatusk, who at this moment was exasperating in agony as well, with its geyser of steaming blood now staining parts of the lecture hall, Port who actually stood still as it happened, but closed his eyes, and the students in the front row, recoiling in disgust. The criminal knight threw his mask off to rub his violated, burning eye, forcing aura into it and returning to finish off the boarbatusk.

It was incapacitated on the floor, spewing blood from its head, with its squealing now truly becoming whimpering as it watched Creighton approach. It made constant efforts to get up on its four hooves, but the attempts proved to be fruitless, all it could do was whimper and cry as it watched the man coming over. As he raised his axe, gleaming in the light of the lecture hall, the boarbatusk stopped, and closed its eyes.

With an a swing of natural cruelty, Creighton decapitated the accepting-grimm, then proceed to smash it completely with his wyvern tooth, exploding the head from his vile-strength, and unfortunately in turn, causing an explosion of more steaming blood as well, dirtying his face, and left eye this time.

" **MOTHERFUCKER!** " Creighton staggered once more as he started to rub the other eye, forcing more aura to heal the damage of his blurred sight

"I should say Creighton, your method of attack was reckless and unprofessional, you had a complete disregard for your own well being... but it got the job done in the end, so excellent work!" Port's praise was only met with Creighton grunting in irritation as he continued to rub his eye.

"Great job Creighto-"

"-I told you to shut up Sky!" The halberdier shrunk in his seat again, slightly, yet falsely sniveling...


	5. Chapter 5

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, and I do not own any other characters, places, or organizations that appear in this fanfic. They all belong to their respective owners or corporations._**

 ** _Update:_** ** _This is no longer a multicrossover, therefore, this chapter has been updated to be void of all other characters not from Dark Souls or RWBY._**

* * *

 _"So sellsword, what are we going up against at the fort?"_

 _"General, our intel was right about it being held up by faunus forces, but it would seem the numbers of how many are stationed in the fort were exaggerated by it."_

 _"Well then, it is always nice to hear good news."_

 _"Even if it means our little spies are terrible at getting us intel."_

 _"Ah, that is true, but fortunately it is only a part of a small percent."_

 _"Yes, yes, well, I am pleased to inform you sir, that the number of rebels stationed at the fort is very little. It's almost as if they are just handing over the fort to us."  
_

 _"Excellent, excellent, we'll be able to dispatch them with ease then."_

 _"Indeed, in fact, I have a suggestion for you, sir."_

 _"And that is?"_

 _"Let us, my partner and I, attack them by ourselves. We will be able to clear them out with little difficulty, and you won't risk losing any of your soldiers."_

 _"That... no, no, I'm afraid I can't allow that."_

 _"But General-"_

 _"-No, Pate, you and that... **partner,** of yours, have done wonders for us. I don't doubt you two can't take that fort by yourselves, but both of you are too valuable to be sent on such a high-risk mission like this by yourselves."_

 _"Then what do you propose we do then?"_

 _"... We attack them tonight, take them out as they sleep, catch them off guard."_

 _"That... that will do, I assume. I'll tell Creighton about the plan-"_

 _"-No, Pate, I... I don't want him to come with us. We can take these faunus prisoners, get some valuable intel out of them. But if we bring Creighton with us, then he'll most likely kill them on sight, no matter the order I give him."_

 _"... I understand, General, I'll inform him of the news."_

 _"And... I want you to stay here with him."_

 _"What?"_

 _"I can't just separate you two. Without you, Pate, he'll just... there's a good chance he'll go on a rampage and kill everyone here. I need you to stay here and keep him in check."_

 _"..."_

 _"Understand, Pate?"_

 _"... Yes, General, I understand completely... good luck on the assault..."_

* * *

"Creighton." Sky woke his sleeping leader with a gentle push on the shoulder while whispering his name, being enough stir the man from his dreams, causing Creighton to slowly lift his armored head from his arms, nearly knocking down his weapons in the process had Sky not grabbed them before that could happen.

"Are we done with this class yet?"

"No, you just got called up to spar with Jaune." Creighton lightly groaned, albeit being called up to do one of his favorite pastimes: fighting.

He got up in the lit-auditorium's bleachers, grabbing both his axe and wyvern tooth, and letting his team send their blessings with him to win the spar. Creighton proceeded to jump down into the pit of the building.

"Creighton! I'd appreciate it if you use the stairs next time." He growled, almost telling Professor Goodwitch to go 'F'-herself, but refrained from doing so. All he did was just glare at her as he walked up on the stage, though it seemed to him that Goodwitch did not even notice it. Creighton stopped when he was about thirty feet away from his sparring partner; the man smiled when he saw the mild-fear in Jaune's expression, he was going to enjoy giving the young man a lesson in why he should fully-fear the criminal.

"You two are to immediately stop at the sound of the buzzard, indicating the spar being over, or until one of you gives up, is that clear?" Creighton and Jaune both nodded at the somewhat incredulous-tone of the professor, looking down at her, one being eager and the other being hesitant. "Then you two may begin."

With that, every light in the auditorium went out, while the platform was the only spot being victimized by the light. The screen above the two turned on, showing Creighton's and Jaune's pictures, each with a green bar right next to them, acting as the image of their aura levels.

The criminal also tossed his weapons aside as well; "I'm not gonna need them to break your balls."

All fear that Jaune had instantly vanished, being replaced with agitation at Creighton's decision. To the Arc boy, the man just subliminally challenged him to hand-to-hand combat, which he is incredibly horrible at. He can use his sword and shield, _Crocea Mors_ , but Jaune felt that would make him look weak and dishonorable. And if he were to lose while using his weapons, Jaune realizes how bad that would make him look.

So he lied his sword and heater shield down, pleasing Creighton and enticing a few students to whisper in surprise among the bleachers.

"I really wasn't challenging you to fight me with your fists, it's just that the Arcs are so pathetic that using weapons on you would be a crime." Jaune gets angered easily, so that insult thrown at him and his family's legacy was just perfect enough to rile the blond boy up.

He just charged the middle-age knight, with his right hand cocked back into a fist, ready to deliver. And all Creighton did in response was stand there, waiting and waiting, until Jaune was close enough to launch himself forward.

Only to have his fist caught by Creighton, effortlessly grabbing hold of the curled-up hand; this was around the time that Jaune realized how much of a disadvantage he was had.

Creighton gave the boy a mighty headbutt, meeting aura-infused skin with aura-infused steel, utterly shutting Jaune down for a second while the pain coursed through his body. Students in the seated crowd moaned and cringed, almost feeling what Jaune had just endured.

The blond boy fell onto his back, grunting as he rubbed his forehead. Creighton was tempted to call him a fool for leaving himself open, but again, he refrained, and just grabbed hold of the boy's throat. Jaune's eyes widened as he was pulled up into the air, with little effort, trying to remove Creighton's cold chainmail-grip. But he would not budge.

Creighton choke slammed the blonde onto the gray-marble platform, getting an even louder response out of the crowd watching them. Jaune felt his entirety itself shutdown for a second time, due to the agony being too much for his body, but only peaking for a second before falling.

"Come on! I heard great tales that Arcs are suppose to be strong, all-mighty huntsmen! What the hell is this?! You're mere existence is just another shitstain on the Arc name!" Creighton's bashing was met with jeers and boos, indicating to him that the students of Beacon were displeased with the Mirrahn talking trash about the legendary Arcs.

Like the first taunt, this one negated all feelings Jaune was experiencing with rage. The boy quickly rushed to his feet with gritting teeth, forcing aura into his right, clenched hand, and slugged Creighton on the back of his head, while the man was distracted by the crowd who was watching their spars.

What looked like to Jaune being middle-aged man staggering forward, was instead Creighton, using the momentum to spin himself around, and ram the unarmored gut of the Arch boy with his right fist. The young man wheezed as he keeled forward, but who's face was met with the rising left chainmail-knee of the veteran, stopping him from falling and springing him back straight up.

While he was distracted by the suffering, Creighton, without hesitation, bent over to lift the blond boy over his shoulder, placing one of his arms over the back of Jaune's neck, and another over one of the Arc's right leg, putting his sparring partner into a fireman's carry.

Then, Creighton upped the flow of aura in his body, tossed Jaune's legs out in front of him in order to spin the blonde, while Creighton himself fell backwards, with Jaune hitting the metal platform face-first, to be met with pure pain and the loudest reaction from the crowd, some even cheering from watching the middle-aged knight having just busted the face of Jaune Arc, who at this point, the criminal heard a whimper escape the boy's lips. He guessed the Arc boy had forgotten about using his aura because a bit of blood was starting to pool where the boy's face was.

But there was no buzzard, which to Creighton was blasphemy. He looked up to see that the young man's aura-bar on the screen to be a light shade of orange. Now Creighton knew he could keep on going with the young man, he was having fun, but he wanted to absolutely humiliate the boy. And what better way to do so than to make him give up, rather than have the spar end by the buzzard.

So again, the wanderer acted with haste, turning around to be surprised, but pleased that Jaune was lying face-up with a cut forehead, saving him the time from having to make sure Jaune was in the position. Creighton proceeded to step his left leg in-between Jaune's legs, and wrapped the two appendages around his left leg at shin level, with the blonde's left over his right. After that was done, the older knight moved on with grabbing both legs, stepping over Jaune which flipped him over in a prone position.

Creighton proceeded by leaning back and compressing Jaune Arc's lower back, stopping right when his bottom was about to make contact with Jaune. The Arc just yowled with unprecedented volume, raising his head to let himself be heard as he winced like he never before, while his mouth was open agape, feeling like he himself was about to snap like a twig. Creighton was just filled with glee that he remembered how to pull off this move.

"Mister Arc, if you like, you may forfeit the spar." Glynda reminded the blond, although she was sure he could not hear her, due to the pain he was experiencing potentially blocking out anything Jaune could hear, that and the young man's agonizing howling was drowning out all sound that could exist in the amphitheater.

It was all music to Creighton's ears, the kind he'd be willing to pay a fortune for, just to keep a record of it. The pain was building and building up at light-speed for the Arc, as his aura was continuously draining, though at a slow rate, yet the suffering he was going through made sure he was going through hell anyway. Jaune knew Creighton wanted him to give up, why else would he pull off a submission hold on him, especially when there was no way for him to get out of it without giving up? He knew Creighton wanted to see the student be humiliated even further, and Jaune wanted to do the exact opposite.

"OH MONTY- I YIELD! I FUCKING YIELD!" But his will to refuse betrayed him, the climax came, and Creighton released the young man, dropping both of his legs and stepping away as the lighting in the amphitheater returned to its original state; he could see RWBY and the rest of JNPR were pissed, save for Ruby and Pyyrha, who looked more worried than angered, whereas Creighton's own team and friends looked entertained as hell.

The middle-aged knight turned back Jaune, who at this point at managed to get on his knees, but was still panting, with his own blood trailing down his face.

Creighton felt the urge, and he accepted it; "You're nothing but a punk, your daddy's a punk, and your momma's a bitch," and much to his surprise, students in the crowd chuckled at his taunt.

All Jaune could say in response was in an irritated, exasperated voice: "Thanks Cray."

"Creighton, please refrain from taunting any further." The criminal knight rolled his eyes, and walked off the stage, proud of his ability in hand-to-hand combat, even if most of his moves barely involved hitting someone with a hand at all...

* * *

The spar was just perfect for Creighton, something he oh-so desperately needed. For two weeks, Creighton had not fought at all, out of spars or in a spar. He was holding back whenever he was tempted to give a students a righteous-thrashing, bottling-up he desire to fight. To him, doing such a thing was unhealthy, but the spar today gave Creighton a reason to smile today.

But that reason was taken to the backyard and shot in the head when Creighton entered the history class of Professor Oobleck.

This class was by far Creighton's, he did not hate the subject history, rather he hated the professor, for again, he would always speak at such his speeds that Creighton would sometimes give up on listening to Oobleck.

Even though it had been two weeks since his first day, this man was officially Creighton's most hated professor at Beacon. There had been moments in the man's class that Creighton wanted to snap his pencil in half and gouge both both of Oobleck's, all the while yelling at him to stop drinking coffee.

"Now, have any of you been subjugated or discriminated because of your faunus heritage?" He heard Oobleck ask, seeing almost, if not all of the faunus students raise their hand, including the rabbit faunus Creighton nearly scared to death on the first day, who name he learned of being Velvet Scarlatina. The man wasn't surprise how hesitant she was, Cardin was in the same classroom with her after all, and the Winchester had just bullied her today.

Creighton was pretty sure Cardin was one of the most hated students in Beacon right now, after having bullied several faunus students just cause of them being that: faunus. And to make matters worst, the criminal's whole team in turn became the most hated team in Beacon as well because of Cardin. Now Creighton did not mind the hatred, he actually welcomed it, embraced it, but as for the others, Dove, Russel, Sky, and including Cardin, he was sure they didn't appreciate it. And he knew he would have to do something about it eventually.

"Now, which one of you young scallions can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the Faunus War?" For the first time in this class, Creighton heard a question he could actually answer because he remembered the day it happened. He raised his scarred calloused hand, at the same time Weiss Schnee raised her dainty little hand. "Yes Weiss?" And he lowered his hand in slight agitation, feeling as if Oobleck picked her because he simply like her more than the criminal. Sky patted him on the back, which much to his leader's surprise, was soothing.

"Fort Castle."

"Precisely! And who can tell me what advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" This time, Creighton was about to raise his hand, but stopped when he spotted Cardin flick a paper football at a sleeping Jaune Arc, waking the boy up; his awakening was more blasting than Creighton's.

"Hey!" Then Oobleck zoomed up to the swordsman, invading his personal space.

"Mister Arc! Finally contributing to the class! this is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"

"Uhhh... the answer... the advantage... of the faunus... had over that guy's stuff..." Creighton shook his head, chuckling _"dumbass_ _"_ quiet enough to not be heard by Jaune or Oobleck, even if he had not answered; he also didn't care if the faunus or kig-yar heard him as well. "Uh... binoculars." Then the whole class- save for his friends and teammates- laughs at Jaune, including Creighton who rarely finds himself laughing out of genuine amusement.

"Very funny Mister Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share you're thoughts on the subject." Creighton choked on his laugh, cutting his stare towards his left to look at Cardin. He knew Cardin would either say something incredibly racist, or not, it a 50-50 chance that Creighton was not willing to take.

So he whispered, "night vision," not moving in to Cardin's ear but whispering with enough volume for only his teammate to hear. Thanks to his mask, no one was able to see his lips move.

"Night vision?"

"Yes, Mister Winchester. The faunus had night vision, which in turn gave them an advantage over Lagune's forces at the battle of Fort Castle." Creighton could here a few students whispering in astonishment at the fact that Cardin payed attention in class, while the guy himself gave Creighton a small grin and nodded in thanks. The criminal was surprised by how good it felt to help a person like that.

"Jaune Arc, I'd like you to stay with me after class for additional readings." Hearing that only enlightened Creighton even further. "Now! Moving on!" Hearing that destroyed his happiness, placing him back in a neutral asshole.

* * *

"So, _whaaa_ _t_ should we do now?"

"I'm going to the library." Creighton quickly replied to Sky, turning to the direction where he destination lied ahead. "Anyone want to come?"

"What are you gonna be doing in there?" Cardin asked, to which Creighton would have replied with a snide remark about doing something one would normally not do in a library. But the dualist had been to the library before, and a majority of everyone in there every time would be doing anything but reading and studying.

"There's something I need to look up." Was all he said.

Cardin shrugged; "Sure, I'll come." Creighton just nodded and looked at his teammates.

"Now don't get into any trouble without us."

Russel scoffed; "I feel like we have more of the responsibility to say that to you two."

"Okay." Was all their leader had to say, because he realized how right the mohawk speedster was. But still, Creighton believed he and the Winchester would be just fine in the library; he was going to be severely disappointed with himself if they were not.

The students separated when they exited the lecture halls, walking out into what was now night, with Creighton and Cardin heading left at the entrance while Dove, Russel, and Sky went right, going to the dining hall. The distance between the lecture halls and the library was incredibly short, taking the two simply less then a minute to reach the building. Inside the place had a above-average amount of students, all sitting together or wandering about, reading, talking, or much to Creighton's distaste, playing board games. He was okay with the socializing, but he felt as if they could play their games somewhere more appropriate than a library. He almost lost it when he saw a turian playing one of these games.

"So, what are ya looking for?"

"Books about smiting." Cardin looked over at his leader with a confused look.

"For what? Don't you have enough weapons already?"

And Creighton replied: "Don't worry about it," earning a sigh from his friend. "You can go find us a table, or look something up too if you want." Creighton informed the boy, leaving him for the depths of the library, in search for what he desire.

The mace-wielder looked away from the direct his leader left him for to see that there were plenty of empty tables for him, he decided to pick the only one. But even when choosing to sit by himself, he could not do it without be glared at by humans, faunus, asari, salarians- at least he thought they were scowling at him,- almost everyone around him were glowering at the young man. But he payed them no mind, and pulled out a chair for himself to sit in.

Only for someone to stop him, placing their hand on his chair and putting it back in.

"How's it going, _Winchester_?" Cardin turned his now-scowling face to see a tall girl, in beacon uniform, with her mocha eyes covered by tinted sunglasses, while her short, dark brown hair was covered by a black beret; there was a wavy lock on the right side of her face that transitioned gradiently into a caramel shade.

"I was just going to sit here, is that a problem?"

"As a matter of fact yeah, I was going to sit here as well." Cardin could feel his right bottom eyelid twitch in annoyance at this student; he guessed she must have saw it because it was around the time he felt it that she smirked.

In response, he just said: "Okay," and proceed to pull his chair out again, and sat on it. It was his turn to smile when he witnessed her grin falter into a snarl, but his faded away in irritation when she grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and pulled him up to her face, stopping when their noses were uncomfortably close to touching each other, though both of them were to mad to even notice.

"I don't **like** you, Cardin."

"Color me _shocked-_ "

"-Shut the fuck up-"

"-Why the hell are you doing anyways? I didn't even say anything to you!"

"You've been bullying Velvet! She's my teammate! My friend!" Cardin wanted to shout something, anything in retaliation, just to shut this girl up. But, the Winchester just held his tongue back in defeat. "What you did to Velvet today was just **fucking** disgusting, twisting and pulling her ears in front of everyone in the dining hall, just laughing as you watched her suffer."

The mace-wielder felt his brow furrow from irritation to uncertainty of where this was going. He believed she would not attack him in a library, for it would not even be close to being worth of the amount of trouble she'd get herself into.

"And?" Cardin felt it, from head-to-toe did he go cold, as he watched the faunus adorned an expression similar to Creighton's face whenever he'd get angry. But Cardin had gotten used to that face, seeing another express fury just as much as Creighton's does was just alien to the Winchester boy.

Then she slugged his face, proving his belief of her not attacking him in a library to be false while knocking him onto the cold floor of the building, giving him a bloodied nose and lip in the process. And judging from how almost everyone else in the library was still talking, Cardin bitterly concluded that they either did not notice her socking him, or that they had noticed but just did not give a fuck.

"What the fuck is going on over here?" But he did, much to the Winchester's gratitude. It seemed to Cardin that Creighton's acknowledgement, even though he barely raised his voice at all, was enough to silent all of the library, the way it should be. "I come back to find a filthy _**fashionista**_ attacking my teammate?" Cardin weakly grinned as he watched the young woman flinch from the amount of venom Creighton used when saying her name. "I demand you apologize to him, right now." He said while setting aside his weapons and book.

"Fucking- what?! I'm not going to say _sorry_ to that damn racist bigot! He deserved it!" Cardin wanted to bark right back at her, but again, he held his tongue, this time getting back up on his feet, knowing Creighton had it all under control.

"If this is about Cardin bullying students here, I feel as if I should inform your _dumbass_ that he has never attacked anyone, and I sure he won't **_ever_** attack a student at Beacon." The mace-wielder got a subliminal order out of that, even nodding his head instinctively. Creighton brushed pass him to close the distance between him and Shepard, who in turn backed away, but stopped with a yelp as Creighton grabbed her by her uniform's collar with a single hand, lifting her up to see eye-to-eye.

"Now, apologize to Cardin for attacking him, or I will **impregnate** you, with a _**pain baby**_." And right there, everyone in the library, including Cardin, listening and watching what was going down, felt a chill run down their spines, as if they were about to witness a murder take place right before them, and that they would be next as well.

But none of them feared for their well being more than Shepard herself, she was the one that Creighton was threatening right now. And none of her teammates were here either; how dumb she felt for not letting them come with her cannot be described with words, there are no words.

The feeling of a hand sheathed in chainmail, grabbing the back of her head and pulling on her hair, was more than enough to break Coco's will.

"Okayokay! I'm s-sorry! L-Let me go, p-please!" She never felt so humiliated and fearful before in her entire life up to this point, almost enraged that she had to go through this at Beacon academy, while Creighton simply felt happiness again.

"Good woman." He stated, gently patting her left cheek twice before releasing his grip and letting Shepard fall on her rump; a barely audible whimper escaped her lips, only being heard by the kig-yar, faunus, Creighton and Cardin. The Winchester boy only frowned though, due to the menacing tittering coming from Creighton. "Let's leave, Cardin, I have what I came for." He nodded as the criminal picked up his weapons and book, following his leader out of the library, passing by intimidated faces and fury-stricken glares.

It was when the two were outside the building's entrance that Creighton turned heel, and slammed Cardin against a wall, taking the boy by surprise and stopping his heart in horror.

"What the fuck did you do in there?" And just like, Cardin's dread dissipated, being replaced by common anger.

"I didn't do anything! That bitch- Shepard just came up to me and tried to start a fight, just because of me bullying faunus!" A growl escaped Creighton's mouth as he vigorously shook his head.

"Damn it boy, I guess now is a good time as any other; stop fucking bullying faunus!"

"What hell Creighton? Why do you fucking care about that shit?" Creighton's grip tightened on Cardin's shoulder, but unlike Weiss, he did not wince in pain. Instead, Cardin chose to transfer the pain into fuel for more agitation.

"I don't give a shit if you're racist Cardin, I'm much worst than that. And besides, I fucking hate the Atlesians just like you hate the faunus, but you don't see me going around and terrorizing anyone from Atlas at Beacon academy. I should also mention that your bullying of faunus has really ruined our team's image-"

"-Oh, and like your fucking behavior hasn't done the same either?! If it's true that me bullying faunus makes our team look like giant assholes, then you acting like a fucking maniac is doing that same for us as well! Fuck, I pretty sure you got both RWBY and JNPR to hate us on the first fucking day because of your old-man tantrum over that whistle!"

Creighton jaw dropped, but no words came out; he was too busy calling himself a total ass for having not realized it until now, thanks to Cardin.

"I mean- fuck, Creighton! If you heard the shit students talk about you behind your back, you'd fucking realize how much they hate _and_ fear you! Some of the elites and brutes here even believe you're an undead turning hollow for Monty's sake!"

"..."

"Well? You got nothing fucking say about that?! Don't tell me it's fucking true! I swear I'll fucking kill you right here, right now if it's true!" Creighton took his hand away from the gargantuan student's shoulder, feeling all of his fury and energy just suck right out of him.

"I'm not undead Cardin... you know that, you've seen me, I do not bear the darksign." Cardin did not say a word in response, he just continued to glare down at his leader. This was the second time he heard Creighton use this tone, ever since Ruby told him why they saved him. "... Why do you hate the faunus?"

"What?"

"You heard me, boy, why do you **_hate_** the faunus?"

"Tch, cause they're just filthy animals! They don't deserve to be treated the same-"

"-Don't bullshit me, Cardin, you're fucking crying right now." The Winchester eyes widened; he touched low to his eyes to feel a few tears had shed without his permission. "There's more to it; tell me, now."

"F-Fuck you Creighton! I don't have to tell you shit!"

"Then fucking promise me this: stop bullying students, and I'll stop acting like a damn maniac!" The two were actually panting from the quarrel's unexpected intensity. Creighton stood waiting for the response.

And it was: "Fine," which Creighton nodded to, lightly sighing from finding a solution to this dilemma. Even though he had his doubts about Cardin going through with the agreement, Creighton stuffed them all into a closet in his head, deciding he'll just cross that bridge if he is forced to reach it.

"Good man, now let's go to the dining hall." And he released Cardin, more gentle than he released Jaune today. The two proceeded to leave the library's entrance, heading out into the star-studded night to have dinner with the rest of their team.

"... So... did you find what you were looking for?"

Creighton looked up at Cardin, then down at the book about smithing in his left hand; the sensation of a prized gem of pure darkness in one of his pouches grew heavy, something his captors had forgotten to remove off of him.

"Yeah..."

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ _ **If any of you happen to know what video game where Creighton's taunt- after defeating Jaune- came from, then you're one of my favorite people in the world.**_

 _ **It didn't come from any of the Dark Souls games, just to let you know.**_


	6. Chapter 6

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, and I do not own any other characters, places, or organizations that appear in this fanfic. They all belong to their respective owners or corporations._**

* * *

 _"So, you two ready?"_

 _"Yes, we gathered everything we'll need for the journey."_

 _"..."_

 _"Creeeiiighton?"_

 _"... Yeah, I'm ready too."_

 _"Hmmm, you don't seem ready, in fact, you look a little down."_

 _"I am, to be honest, but it's because I have to look at you everyday, you filthy gyrm."_

 _"Ooh, that hurts Creighton. Why must you be so cruel?"_

 _"Why are you so ugly?"_

 _"You're acting immature, Creighton."_

 _"So, what the fuck are you going to do about it?"_

 _"Calm down Creighton, calm down-"_

 _"-No- you know what? Why are we doing this? Trafficking drugs? We're fucking treasure hunters damnit! We've slaughtered hundreds of soldiers! Hundreds of terrorists! We've raided bunkers, castles, forts, dungeons, Atlesian bases for the Flame's sake! Now we're here, just guarding a caravan filled with drugs?!"  
_

 _"I know it's a bit of a downgrade to what we have accomplished. But-"_

 _"-But what? I don't care what the reason is for us doing this, I-"_

 _"-He's paying us over five-hundred thousand lien for each caravan that reached its destination in one piece, Creighton."_

 _"..."_

 _"Ah, see? You're looking a bit lighter now. Feeling better?"_

 _"... Looking at you're toothless-ass took that away."_

 _"How... how could you tell? I'm wearing-"_

 _"- I sneak into your room every night to piss on your face; I've seen your dentures in that glass of water."_

 _"... You, **you** -"_

 _"-Now now, Galloway, don't worry about it-"_

 _"-Forget it! Just... just get ready, it's almost time to leave."_

 _"After this is done, you might want to go see one of them doctors that look at your skin for germs and parasites; my piss ain't the healthiest in the world."_

 _"Thanks Cray, now get on going..."_

* * *

"Yo, Creighton."

"Gah- WHAT!?" The shout took Sky by surprise; he thought Creighton would just stir awake, not suddenly open his eyes and jerk his head towards the halberdier, while shouting at the same time. The only thing Lark could think of to do at the time was just raise his hands up in front of him, as if he was just caught by the cops for committing a crime.

"Hey, hey, don't get so riled up, Cray. I just wanted to wake you up cause we're here." The middle-aged man ran the sentence through his head as he just stared up at his teammate, feeling a bit guilty for having yelled at Sky when he was just helping him.

"Sorry." Creighton rose to his feet with that, stretching his old muscles, causing his aged bones to crack, once again making Sky believe Creighton's knees were about to give out. He noticed that landed airship had been completely vacated, save him and the halberdier. "Where is everyone?"

"Uh... we kind of left the ship while you were sleeping, and... forgot about you."

"... Nice, real nice."

"Hey, I came back for you when we noticed you weren't there with us."

"And when you say _'we,'_ is it just our team, or did everyone on the trip notice?" Sky hesitated to answer that question with a lie, because he knew Creighton would know that it would be a lie, especially now since he has been taking a few seconds to answer a question while pondering on whether or not he should lie.

"Everyone notice; that Spartan was the first to actually ask where you were." The criminal sighed and shook his head. He did not care if it was embarrassing or not, he was actually frustrated with the fact that his whole team had not seen that he was still sleeping when they landed, and in turn not bother waking him up.

"Let's just go."

"Okay." The two walked out of the airship, out into the open of a forest filled with many cliffside, with trees covered in a dark-brown bark, and with leaves colored dark red, along with grass, bushes, flowers and their stems matching with similar shades of red. Creighton stopped when they took their first step out of the airship, just because the sight of such a place was unprecedented, and just as beautiful.

Then it came: "Oh by the GODS! Why is it scorching out here?!" Sky playfully smirked at his leader's anguish, looking on at the man boiling under all that chainmail, guessing he was used to more wet and cold weather in Mirrah, rather than to the dry, warm-to-hot days in Vale.

"I don't understand what you're talking about, it's perfectly fine out here." Creighton growled, but Sky wasn't intimidated, knowing his leader was just being a baby.

"Whatever, come on." The two kept on going, walking into the crimson wilderness on a trail from the gargantuan airship they came here on; Creighton was a bit relieved by finding the shade in Forever Fall being an effective source of cooling himself down from the blistering sun. He considered removing his steel mask for the duration of the trip, but Creighton did not feel like carrying his mask along with his axe and wyvern tooth, so he trashed the thought.

"We should be careful out here, Goodwitch said this place is filled mostly with Grimm." Creighton smiled at the warning.

" _Mostly_?"

"Yeah... I guess that means there's other monsters out here. Goodwitch actually told us to stick together before I left to get you."

"And you did so alone?"

Sky sheepishly replied, " _Yeeeaah...,_ " and Creighton just shook his head at what what either his teammates bravery, stupidity, or just wanting to make sure Creighton himself did not suffer any consequences for having stayed behind at the airship.

"It's okay, you can take anything on at this point honestly. I kind of hope we do encounter something here, something hostile, I have not fought _anything_ ever since I joined Beacon, in case you didn't notice. Goodwitch has yet to put me in a spar and I don't know why."

"You sparred with Jaune yesterday! And won!"

"Jaune doesn't count; he's probably the biggest pussywillow Beacon ever saw." The ridiculous explanation was enough to mentally exhaust Sky for the whole day, even if it were true. "And also, you guys don't invite me to your spars."

"Creighton... you're our leader, you don't have to be invited to spar with us."

"... Okay, cool, good man."

"For Monty's sake, Creighton." Sky almost felt like Dove for second, how he would always be annoyed by Creighton sounding like he doesn't have a care in the world. Even though Lark found it to be incredibly amusing, he now understood why Dove hated it: because it makes you feel like the Mirrahn knight just does not care about what you say at all.

"Oh marvelous- there she is." Creighton pointed out, looking right up ahead of the trail, seeing the the tall women. Goodwitch looked a bit annoyed, possibly because of him, being guessed by the knight.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," Sky bit back his tongue from telling his leader to shut up and keep moving. Even if he believed that if Creighton kept talking then consequences would follow, he also believed the repercussions of telling his leader to keep quiet would be much worse. "I know it's rude to do such a thing to a lady."

The blond professor's glare only hardened in irritation, but she did not follow with any criticizing remarks, out of knowledge from complaints of the students that doing such a thing would motivate Creighton to talk back, the huntress was just not in the mood to deal with such a mind like his. So when the two students were just a few feet away from her and Carolina, the professor handed Sky a glass jar, whereas she practically shoved another jar into Creighton's chest, further strengthening his hatred for her.

"We are here to collect sap, Creighton of Mirrah, fill this to the tip and meet up with the rest of the teams here." Immediately, Creighton hopes for this field trip being good was just sent six-feet-under. He had no desire to work today, to him any work to be outside of a class should be homework back at the academy, not collecting sticky liquid in a heat-stroking environment filled with horrors that could kill you at any given moment.

But that did not happen, as expected by Creighton, and he just stiffly nodded with tamed eyes; "Okay," and he left with Sky by his side, with the two Beacon faculty members staring on.

With Creighton and Sky, it did not take long until for them to find the are where the teams had ran off into, spotting RWBY and JNPR, but no sign his or Lothric's team- which consisted of him as leader, with his older brother, Lorian, and two more: a young woman named Karla, a child of the abyss, but unlike them, she is ashamed of her origin, which in turn makes her somewhat of a gloomy woman to be around, and Yuria of Londor, another young who Creighton found to be a tad insufferable. She was similar to Pyrrha and Blake, in that she is sort of a smart ass.

Together, the four make team LLKY, _Lucky_.

"Where's our team?"

"I... _hnng-_ I don't know."

Creighton hissed, mildly: "Great job Sky, come looking for me before you guys discussed on where we are to gather together."

"Shut up Creighton."

"Whatever, I'm gonna ask..." The criminal stopped, bothered by the fact that none of those who actually tolerated him and his team were no where to be seen among the others; he only thought they must be with the rest of his team. "One of these guys..." He now hoped he was _lucky_ this time, because Creighton was positive these two teams hated him.

He knew RWBY despised on day one when he barged into their room after Ruby woke him up from his power nap with a whistle, and he knew JNPR hated him because of the Wanderer making Jaune submit to failure at their spar yesterday, effectively, and purposely, humiliating him in front of everyone; Nora, Lie, and Pyrrha knew he meant to do it as well.

" _Oooo,_ good luck." Creighton growled again, but quieter than last time. He had no desire to do this, the criminal felt it would be less stressful just to go find the two teams on their own.

But the sooner he was done with it, the better, so Creighton sucked it up, and went over to where the eight students had gathered at, with Sky following him from behind, intent on letting him take the full-on force of provoked hatred, in case Creighton decided to be a dick like usual.

"Hey," The gravelly sound of the middle-age man's voice, along with his presence in general, already put RWBY and JNPR on edge, stopping their attempts to gather up the red sticky sap, to see what one of the most hated students wanted, "do uh... do any of you know where CRDL and LLKY are?"

"..."

"..."

"..." Unlike most of the times where no one would reply, Creighton was growing pissed, rather enjoying it. Unlike all those times where he would ask a question, this one was such a inquiry where he actually hoped to get an answer for.

"They're over that hill." And thank the Flame, one of them answered. It was Ren, sounding void of any emotion like usual, though it was only usual to Creighton because that was actually in fact the first time he ever heard Lie speak. How he could go one for all this time without hearing the boy's voice was a mystery to the middle-age knight.

"Thank you..." Creighton could not believe it himself; he had legitimately forgotten the boy's name, "... _buuuuckaroooo..._ "

"..."

"..."

"... Don't tell me you've forgotten my name."

Creighton did exactly that. Unfortunately though, that would somewhat, barely, minutely, demoralize Ren. All the while, Sky was holding himself back from snickering at his leader's decision from calling Ren 'buckaroo.'

"... Wait, wait, I remember it, you're name's... _Mean Ben?_ " Sky lost control, starting to chuckle, like a little jester, with Ren further finding himself losing spirit. Surprisingly, even a few others- Nora, Ruby, Jaune, Yang- found it amusing, even if they hated Creighton. "Is it?" As for the man himself, he suddenly found himself getting a kick out of this, despite actually not knowing the student's name.

"... No... no, it's... it's Lie Ren."

"Damn..."

"..."

"... Okay, thanks." Lie found it to be incomprehensible, but his morale had fallen even further. How could Creighton have forgotten his name? Did he even forget it? Was he faking it? No, the mystery in Creighton's voice was too genuine, too realistic, he truly had no recollection of Lie Ren's name before he gave it to the Wanderer. The distress was visible, and Creighton wanted a bit more. "Hey now, don't feel bad, I'm an old man. I have a hard time remembering the names, Gwen, don't get yourself down in the slumps." More began to pour out. "Welp, time to get going, I suppose."

And they left, gracefully, a word that should never be used to describe Creighton, putting behind them the mildly distraught Lie Ren, with Lark's sniggering trailed away in volume. The two traversed over the small red hillside, the halberdier finding a cool breeze brush up against his face, while Creighton's was barely getting any, sweating like a pig. Thank the Gods that he could now see the rest of CCRDL and LLKY, all gathering sap. But before before he could go down there, Creighton felt the need to relieve himself, and it was monstrous.

"I need to piss," came out of his mouth, being more guttural than usual as he handed over his jar to Sky, "take it."

"O-Oh, okay. Don't," Sky did not get to finish, watching his leader run down the crimson hillside, away from him, "take too long," yet he still said it anyways, looking like an idiot. But he just shrugged, and continued down over to his teammates and friends.

"Hey, Sky, where's the heck's Creighton? I thought you were gonna get him."

"He needed to piss." Came his straight response to Cardin, walking over to a tree and sitting both of the jars down.

"It'll take some time for a man his age to do so."

"Hey," Dove looked over to Karla, seeing her lightly smiling under her ridiculously big, witch-like hat, made of leather dyed a dark blue, "don't make jokes like that, you should respect our elders."

"Even a man like Creighton?" As an answer, a loud grunt came from the behemoth in bronze armor, wielding a gargantuan sword, lit ablaze permanently by the fire of the slain demon prince; Karla had no idea what Lorian meant by that though.

"Yes Karla, no matter how you see Creighton, don't let leave your mind that he is an old dog of war. He deserves respect, even if he may not give it back."

"Yeah, see? Lothric and Lorian agree."

"However," the masked Yuria came in, having filled her jar of sap before everyone else had, standing up against the shade of her tree, her Darkdrift holstered, "why must we relinquish our respect for him? If he-"

"-Hey, no one said said anything about us _relinquishing_ our respect for Creighton," Russel barked, "you either respect him or don't, that's it. Don't make such a big deal out of it." Yuria glowered over to the mohawk speedster, displeased with his tone, which he just happened to notice. "What? Oh, I'm sorry. _Thou musn't obsess with such matters. Thee either respect_ "

That mockery was enough to throw Yuria off the deep end and march over to Thrush, amusing him, almost wanting to laugh from seeing how furious she was, stomping like an enraged ogre. "What? I tried my best. Don't...wait- _Thou musn't get thee jimmies russel-_ "

She kicked him in the face...

* * *

He left Lark and the others, just running and running, swaying as he did so, until he could no longer hear their talks of the day, until he nor them could see each criminal stopped at one of the many trees in the crimson wilderness, having to drop his chain legging down to his ankles, just to relieve himself. It was the only downside he could think of for wearing armor leggings. But it was a small price to pay for such fine metal to cover your whole body.

"Damn it Cardin, it's our fault they hate us, hate me, hate you, our team... This was a terrible decision... I should have just gone after Pate." He stopped himself all together, to listen to the forest, but the only thing he could hear was the chirping from a multitude of bird species, and his own heartbeat, but that was about it. He was indeed having somewhat of a miserable time at Beacon, specifically the classes; Creighton had not expected them to be so difficult, with Oobleck's being the most challenging, but just because of the man always talking too fast.

Pate was also on his mind, Creighton was shocked with himself how he kept on thinking and thinking about Pate, ever since news broke out last week about a bar filled with fresh and seasoned hunters and huntresses. Creighton knew, knew that his former partner was the one who massacred all of them, but for a reason, because the criminal knew Pate would not just go on a killing spree without purpose. The spearman would only commit such an act of death to either get information for someone or something, but what it is, Creighton does not know.

He could not imagine what else the psychopath could want in life, but at this pint in Pate's life, after having gained so much riches, so much spoils, Creighton suspected Pate wanted power, and they both know there is more than enough methods in Remnant to get power. Not political or social power, just the kind of power one can use to take lives by their own hands, in or out of the battlefield, just to get what they want. Just like Pate.

"Where are you... what do you want, you **bastard**... I just want you to die."

A single footstep, crunching leaves and snapping twigs right in front of the middle-age knight's hidden face, broke his peace. Creighton turned eyes, expecting to see either Sky, or one of the students, or potentially either Goodwitch.

"Hehehe, hold on Creighton, I wanna catch up with ya first." But that voice belonged to none of them, it being from his ruthless past of course, a voice of permanent, gruff wisdom. And a black boot, with unnatural strength, knocked Creighton out in a single stomp.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** ** _To those who have played LISA and The Joyful, brace yourselves for some brutality. It may not be as brutal as those games are though, but still, it'll be bloody in the next chapter._**

 ** _Update: This is no longer a multicrossover, all previous chapters have been updated. I acknowledge that making this such a thing was indeed a failure.  
_**


	7. Chapter 7

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, they belong to their respectful owners._**

* * *

 _"Creighton! Where the_ _ **fuck**_ _did you run off to?! You can't pull a stunt like that out there!"_

 _"Shut it, boy, don't you think I know that?!"_

 _"Then why did you run from the expedition site?-"_

 _"-I did not run either-"_

 _"-That doesn't matter! We are on a warzone! Do you realize how close you were to letting those inbred Atlas-fuckers breach our line?! If they-"  
_

 _"-HEY! In case you didn't notice, I'm the reason why they couldn't push in the first place! They were all too focused on me! And that gave you assholes that chance to flank them!"  
_

 _"For fucking- look at your forehead! You took a damn bullet right through there! You could have died! You should have died! How the hell are you even standing?!"_

 _"Who gives a shit?! I'm perfectly fine! It didn't do a damn thing to me, so it doesn't matter!"_

 _"Like-"_

 _"-Like what, huh? Don't throw such a fucking hissy fit!-"_

 _"-Hissy fit?! I'm worried about your own safety damnit! What if you didn't live through that?! Huh?!"_

 _"Then I'd be dead, and be rid of you as well. In fact, I wish I did die back there, just so I don't have to deal with your **bitchiness** every day."_

 _"Then what the hell would I do without you then?! Did you ever think how I would feel if you died?!"_

 _"No actually, I thought you just mutually hated me. I mean... look at you Pate, you're a grown as man! You're fucking nineteen! You can handle yourself without me! Find a new partner if I die, it's not such a big deal."_

 _"I... **fuck, you, Creighton.** "_

 _"Now you're getting it. Go clean yourself up, Pate, you look like hammered shit."_

 _"I-"_

 _"-That's a fucking order, soldier, get your dirty ass cleaned and report back here as soon as your done. We have more bodies to move dispose of."_

 _"..."_

 _"You know the punishment for disobeying an order, Pate..."_

 _"... Fine, sir..."_

* * *

A good kick to the gut was more than enough to wake Creighton up, wincing and grunting in response to whoever harmed him.

Creighton opened his eyes, finding himself bound by an unbelievably power hex, courtesy of the gyrm himself no doubt, holding him still like a statue, paralyzed from head-to-toe by whatever hex this was, up against a large metal container, negating any usage of his aura. He still had all of his chainmail on, but his mask was gone, no where to be found.

"Howdy _Cray_." There he was, standing atop of a large metal crate. A short, stout, elder gyrm, with milky-white eyes, light-green skin, looking as if he was on the brink of hollowing, wearing a suit of metal, rounded-scale armor. His long, aging-blond beard was crusty, appearing to be capable of giving on a disease if they touched it. In his hands were Creighton axe, and his wyvern tooth.

Around him were ten gyrm, all warriors, all looking like they are about to turn hollow, all armed to the teeth, some with a large greatshield made of stone and a makeshift great hammer made with an anvil, other with two large axes, almost matching their size. By their leader's side was a pale boy, no older than ten, with long, smooth, black hair, only wearing a blue robe, obviously too big for him.

"It's been a long time, Creighton. How have you been doing?"

Creighton said nothing, and did nothing, he just sat their, looking up at the rotting gyrm, with unimaginable, long-forgotten anger building up inside.

"I've heard you escaped an execution in Mirrah, went to Vale, killed their Flying Horror, and that you're now attending Beacon academy. I'm quite proud of you, Cray, you've come such a long way."

"..."

"Oh come now, aren't you happy to see me? We've had such good times together."

"... The only pleasure I've had with you was when I saw you're reaction to me killing them." Creighton smiled, and the humanoid frowned, switching it up. He jumped down the metal crate, clenching his grip on Creighton's weapons, scowling, making it look as if his flesh was about to fall off from being creased too much.

"You just ruined this reunion."

"Like how I ruined your fam-" The old gyrm just rushed up to Creighton, taking him by actual surprise that someone the undead's size and age could move at such speed, and jabbed him right in the gut, effectively forcing blood to cough out of Creighton, the gyrm in front of him, taking pleasure in the feeling of some red liquid staining his leathery skin. "What do you want from me, asshole?"

"I want you to suffer."

"Is that it? That's the reason why you followed me here? You can't do anything to make me suffer, and you know it."

He smiled again, eyeing up Creighton's body, prepared for being here a long time.

"You're half-way right, Creighton, every monster had it's limit, and you're no exception. It will take a while, that's for sure, and we can't keep you here for long, or else your little traveling group of children will notice your missing presence," the gyrm dropped Creighton's axe, and used that free hand to push back the right eyelids of his former companion, "one of your eyes is a good start, after all, we're both firm believer of that phrase _'an eye for an eye,'_ right?"

"... Right." Creighton was not going through this, his mind was telling him that he was not about to allow this. He force himself to begrudgingly live in a fantasy as he stood still against his will; had this been a normal hex, Creighton could break out of it with pure physical force. But it was his, the gyrm's, his magic was immense, there was no point in struggling against it. All he could do was wait for it to wear off; the gyrm would not cast it again, his old age had diminished his source of mystical stamina, just as much as his magic was powerful. Creighton knew that he wasted all of it with this hex, he won't be able to cast it again, or anything else.

Though to say he'll survive this torture, it was unsure.

With such unnecessary force the criminal's cobalt eye just lunged out of his socket with an audible ' _POP!'_

It burned, it burned so much. The pain was enough to make anyone, no matter who they were, scream, but save for Creighton, who just stood still, letting his breathing intensify as he felt his eye pulse.

Then the undead gyrm pulled, hard, with his grip behind the eyeball, holding onto the attachment that kept it stuck to Creighton's head. Surprisingly, to both of the men, Creighton's eye had not pulled out all the way though, the pain did increase to inhuman levels though, forcing Creighton to start mildly panting.

"Ho-oh, looks like it's not gonna go that easily. To be honest, I kind of expected this though; you're body is after all much" he pulled on "much," but had no success, " _much,_ " he pulled again; the pain grew to even greater heights as blood began to spew, " ** _much_** ," he pulled thrice and harder, causing Creighton's breathing to hitch in agony, with even more blood flowing out, " ** _MORE DURABLE!_** "

The eyeball gave in to his desire, ripping out of its socket with a glorious, but small barrage of Creighton's own blood. He could feel a numb feeling, begging to collapse from shock, but the hex would not allow it. It wanted to make sure he still stood strong.

"My, you're even tougher than I expected. Such a shame, I was hoping to hear you cry like a bitch." The words were just a mess to Creighton's ears, "but we still have a bit of time to make sure I get what I want. Have at him..."

* * *

Cardin was in a panic; he had no idea where Creighton was.

After ten minutes passed when the Winchester reached the area where the rest of the students on the trip had gathered up at to collect sap, the boy was the first to worry for his leader. But instead of going back to his friends to tell them about Creighton potentially missing, Cardin went out into the forest, not too far away from the others though, in order to search for his leader.

This was unlike of his leader, even though Creighton liked to dick around with everyone at Beacon- something Cardin learned after their first week- he would never do something like this. The Winchester did not think his leader want to sleep though, Cardin believes Creighton knows better than to do such a thing in Forever Fall.

Cardin was using his scroll, a small, holographic device all huntsmen usually carry with them, to track down Creighton scroll, which was actually not that far away as he expected. He did fine his leader scroll and steel masked, abandoned that is, under the shade of a tree, with a trail of footsteps leading deeper into the forest, and on it was a picture, absolutely chilling; this was when Cardin started to fear for his leader's well being. What he did next was simple, to him at least: tell the others about this.

He ended up running at break-neck speeds from the tree, heading back South, passing-by the other students who noticed the gargantuan human's fretting expression on his face. He trampled beside the hill, circling the mound and reaching his team and friends, noticing him being troubled as well.

"Cardi-"

"-Creighton's missing! Someone kidnapped him!"

"What?" Lothric inquired, getting up at the Winchester's words, almost shambling back down as he did so.

"I found his scroll abandoned in the forest, look." Cardin turned on the man's scroll, showing the picture of him that displayed on the holographic device to everyone.

Dove asked: "What makes you say he was kidnapped?"

"Here, look!" Cardin showed all of them the picture on his scroll, confirming that Creighton was indeed kidnapped. The digital image itself stirred mixed, foul emotions in everyone, some horrified, others furious.

"Did you go to Goodwitch?!"

"No!"

"Cardin you fucking idiot!"

"The hell did I do Dove?!"

"You should have- fuck it, we need to tell her now!" Dove exclaimed, utterly feeling pissed by Cardin's stupidity to not inform their professor first. But they did run soon after, all of them actually, the eight students stampeded over fallen branches and crimson leaves, completely crunching them, effectively forming a trail behind them as well.

And just like when Cardin ran pass them, the other students noticed, but were now concerned by the fact that it was all eight of them, not just Winchester, definitely saying with no words that something horrible, something unprecedented had come up, obviously being serious to send them off on a stampeded like a wild herd of goliaths.

It was enough to prompt Jaune, of all people, to ask: "What's goi-"

"Creighton's been kidnapped!" The halberdier cut him off, already knowing what the blond swordsman was going to ask.

Now even though almost everyone who weren't a part of CCRDL or LLKY despised Creighton a varying-degree for each individual, they knew Creighton was a tough, and scary man. But someone, or something, in Forever Fall, according to Sky kidnapped that man; one would have better luck with kidnapping a sentient tornado made of napalm lit ablaze and sharks immune to napalm than Creighton, they would need to be unbelievably powerful themselves. Knowing that, RWBY and JNPR felt it being reasonable for the eight to be scared for his safety. But there was a total of four teams on this trip, some even capable of conjuring miracles and sorcery, others being able to teleport, with a seasoned huntress guiding them as well, so there should be no need to fear the person or thing that kidnapped Creighton, right?

All of them felt otherwise, that just shows how much they respect Creighton abilities and power, even if they had seen little of what he could demonstrate, or all that he could demonstrate, none of them were fully sure how mighty Creighton really was, but they all suspected it to be great, some- like Jaune- believed it to even be immense.

Either way, everyone started to run after the others, following until they reached Professor Goodwitch, who knew, even before finding out what happened, that something went awry when she saw all of the teams running towards her.

"What's going-"

"-Creighton's been kidnapped!" Carding blurted, interrupting his professor like Lark did to Jaune. "I-I found his scroll abandoned in the forest, with a lot of footsteps leading deeper in!" He explained, while finding the photo in his leader's scroll. "Here!" Cardin showed it to the huntress; it was of a gyrm, possibly having hollowed, holding over his shoulders a maskless-Creighton, clearly unconscious. The picture itself agitated her, clearly indicating that Cardin was speaking the truth, and that now one of their students had been taken away by some unknown assailant.

"Cardin, can you take me to where you found this?" Cardin nodded urgently. "Good, everyone! I want all of you, except for CCRDL, to head back to the airship at o-"

"Now hold on there, little lady." It was too late though, whatever she planned on doing was just shot down by ragged tone.. "I have Creighton right here for ya'." He emerged from the forest, behind Glynda, along with an absolutely beaten Creighton, holding onto all of his belongings. The most notable of his new scars was how his right eye was close, with a dry trail of blood that had flown out of it. "No need to start a panic" The students watched as more gyrm came out of the woods, just hulking humanoids in armor that made it look as if they were made out of stone, with a small boy by the oldest gyrm's side; one trait they all had in common was that they all appeared as if they were just hollows. "I-"

"-CREIGHTON! Give him back asshole!" Cardin blasted, almost charging at the gang with his mace, but fortunately Tartar held him back, as the gyrm grinned, showing yellow, almost wood-like teeth.

"Hm, it seems like everyone here is just as unhappy as you are, _Cray,_ " he looked over to the criminal, not getting a response out of him, he simply stood there, looking down like a child being scolded, "why would you want to go back to them? They don't seem very nice." The undead looked back at those from Beacon, seeing while them readying their weapons, activating their auras, it was enough to make the man laugh, like a clown's laughter coming through a blown-out speaker, it was just demonic.

"So predictable you humans are, always resorting to use violence before you try anything else. Just li-"

"-It would be wise if you hand over Creighton to us, unharmed." Goodwitch spoke up, only to entice more laughter from the gargantuan blond.

It should have been impossible, but at this point the man's grin grew larger, and out from his pocket, he pulled out Creighton right cobalt eye, with string tied to it, as if one would wear it like a necklace; "Well, I'm afraid what's done, is done. But it's not that ba-"

"-You fucking monster!" Russel shouted, stopping Buzzo, breaking his palm's skin as he gripped his daggers even tighter.

And all he got in response was the warlord pushing Creighton forward. He looked back at the drug trafficer, and back at his team, walking with somber towards them; it only infuriated them even more to see him so lifeless, and to see the other man still smiling like a child, as if he does not care how severe the repercussions he is going to suffer for kidnapping and harming a student of Beacon Academy.

"Don't get too angry now, I actually wanted to cut off one of his arms or legs, I really did." Creighton reached his team; "but I decided this, letting my warriors give him a good thrashing, and killing his own friends, would be enough."

"... **What?!** " Creighton turned, with his sulking face twisting into anger at his words.

"Remember boys, kill all of them, and leave Creighton be."

Somewhere, off in the distance, a horn, deep enough to make organs shake, started to play, with a series of roars following suit, as the little boy next to the gyrm closed his eyes, with his body growing unnaturally, gaining five more feet in height as his skin started to decay to the point that what was once the boy now looked malnourished, his lips kept stretching until his teeth were baring permanently, the abomination's arms grew two feet longer, with its nails turning sharp to the point that it could eviscerate anyone, its hair fell out, and it even started levitating off of the ground. Creighton started to grind his teeth in anxiety, unsure of what just became of the boy.

And out of the forest, breaking down trees in the process, came a horrendous grim. An armless gargantuan, standing over twenty meters tall, with no black fur, but skin, spotless of any protrusions of bone, stretched and twisted all over his body, his thick, muscular legs bent backwards, with large three-toed feet, and a large mask, exactly resembling a face of a human, with six bright orange-red eyes glowing

Yet despite it big entrance, the first of this deadly duo to attack was the boy, breaking the laws of nature right in front of everyone by conjuring a blizzard of fearsome snow, effectively covering the red ground in white, and reducing everyone's vision to the point that they could barely see their own hands in front of everyone.

Following that was the Joy mutant moaning, like a boat horn being blasted through a microphone, with its shadow indicating the beast raising its right leg to stomp the group from Beacon.

"EVERYONE SCATTER!" Creighton was the one who shouted, with his voice thankfully being loud enough for everyone to hear over the roaring snowstorm. Moving in such a blizzard would be difficult in it of its own, for an weak, or even average person that is, which was the opposite of everyone at Beacon. They were able to do so with some difficulty though, but Creighton somewhat hoped that everyone cleared the area as the mutant's foot created a mini-quake at it crushed where they once stood.

Creighton found himself flying a bit from the shockwave that followed, breaking what he assumed to be a tree in half, and being stopped by another one behind that one, just like the day he escaped his captors. He plucked his weapons out of the snow, with his thoughts all focusing on that boy; if he took him out, then the blizzard will dissipate, it would be fruitless to fight a grim of this caliber in this kind of environment, that's why Creighton was more intent on killing whatever that boy had become than the mutant.

He could already hear the sound of war within the blizzard, hearing shouting, gunshots, the clanging of metal against metal, and the roaring of the grim as well. Deep within, he could see the flaming greatsword of Lorian suave, the glowing white miracles of Lothric, the flashing of bullets flying out, and the luminescence of Weiss' sigils; Creighton found himself almost taking one of those large axe of the gyrm warriors, having thrown the large tool of death not at Creighton, but at a target he had missed, which in turn led to it still flying at Creighton, who manged to barely sidestep it.

Another stomp came from the beast, this time being a few inches away from Creighton, stopping his heart for a second due to shock and launching him back, hitting and breaking through two trees this time, being stopped by a third one.

"Are you shitting me?- Fuck it, got to kill that abomination." Creighton groaned, quickly getting himself back up, fighting through the pain and picking up his weapons, with his breathing barely starting to stutter from the cold. He decided to charge where the sounds of battle were coming from, but halfway through he found himself being knocked down by a tackle, from the old gyrm that started all of this, pinning Creighton down onto the white cold

"Hey now, Cray, I can't let you interfere with thi- **_OOOFFH!_** " Though the man found himself at the short end of the stick when Creighton headbutt him, four times as hard as he did to Jaune yesterday, forcing a stream of blood to fly out as the undead fell off the criminal. Though a headbutt of that magnitude should have busted the man's head in half, Creighton learned from experience that this gyrm's body was incredibly durable _without_ an aura. But again, his body is weaker thanks to age.

Both monsters though got back onto their feet at almost the same haste, and grabbed their weapons with same speed too. But when they faced each other, both froze, waiting for either one of them to strike first; Buzzo was still smiling.

He could someone, possibly Yang, scream: "RUBY LOOKOUT!" Followed by another stomp of the raging grim, farther away from Creighton this time.

"Ya know Creighton, even though I told my warriors to kill all of your friends and leave you alive, that doesn't mean I can't fuck you up good."

"Hmph, your men are shit, even with a grim like this and an whatever that boy is, everyone on this trip is going back to Beacon alive, I guarantee it."

"... You know what? I changed my mind: you're gonna die by me, **boy**." Right at the end of his words, the gyrm pulled out a small blade from his backside, raised it m as he stepped forward, only to be blind sided by Cardin, taking the full force of the charging behemoth of a human. Both enjoyed watching the filthy gyrm fly off into the distance.

"Thank you Cardin, now go find whatever that thing is that created the blizzard and kill it!"

"You got it!" Immediately after Cardin ran back into where most of the fray was taking place, Creighton turned heel to see gyrm had returned, actually reaching Creighton just as he turned around without making a sound, prepared to stab him through his chainmail, piercing him in the gut.

Unfortunately for that undead though, Creighton was much faster than him.

The Wanderer merely sidestepped the lunge of the gyrm's dagger, raising his axe up as he did so, proceeding to bringing it down and cleaving the gyrm's arm in two, slicing through it like butter.

" ** _AAAGGGH!_** " He fell onto his knees, screaming at the top of his lungs, taken by shock as he watched what was now a stump of his left appendage, staring with fright and fury at how much of his plan screaming at the top of his lungs again; he honestly did not expect himself to be already submitting to this kind of pain.

Another blow came from the criminal knight again, this time using his wyvern tooth, cracking the gyrm's head open, gashing out blood to spurt out with a squishing, bubbly effect of sound. It was enough to silence the gyrm, almost feeling himself slip from consciousness as he fell back into the cold embrace, letting his own blood flow and absorb into the snow.

There was an explosion, most likely some sort of fireball casted by the boy of the abyss, lighting up the thick cold fog of the blizzard, followed by a shout, simple calling out, "NORA!" Creighton assumed it was Lie Ren.

Creighton did go to help though with whatever had happened, no, he wanted to make sure this loose end is tied up before the day is done.

He looked down at his prey, actually letting the floodgates release in his eyes, and saddled the gyrm soon after, wrapping his hungry hands over the undead's throat, squeezing and squeezing, prompting the criminal to place one hand on the criminal knight's wrists, while the other made an attempt to find his weapon. But it prove hopeless, and Creighton squeezed the adam's apple in between his thumbs, with enough power to shatter it, forcing now a gagging of bone in the throat to only be drowned out by all that was going on around them, though Creighton was able to hear it clearly.

The old drug trafficer started to hoarsely cough-out his own vital liquids, with a bit of the adam's apple, with it staying up in the air, then falling back onto his face, staining his stubble and scarred skin. He started to wheeze and hack, giving up on finding his weapons and instead focusing his hand, lunging it forward to Creighton's own face, trying to gouge out his left eye. But he closed it shut, absolutely intent on not losing another eye.

The Wanderer strengthened his entombment of the gyrm's throat,. His breathing, stuttering intensely, and weakening, as the sound of an immense gunshot was followed by a brutal howl of the gargantuan grim. Yet it did not deter Creighton, nothing could catch his attention at this point, smiling at the broken old gyrm, feeling joy, while at the same time there was wroth for losing his eye. But as stated before by him, Creighton believes in an eye-for-an-eye; in this case however, Creighton felt that it would be only fair to take Roman's life in return for what he took from the Mirrahn.

"LORIAN, GET OVER HERE AND FUCKING HELP!"

He stopped trying to gouge out Creighton's last eye, finding his strength weakening while the tears started to flow out of control.

"Kaza, listen to me..."

He found himself letting go of Creighton's wrists; it was so hard just to breath.

"At midnight, he's going to break into our house..."

His body grew stiff, giving up, feeling so defeated, nothing was left but sorrow.

"He'll kill you and your little brother..."

His vision started to look as if he was staring out of two frameless windows, from the inside of a pitch-black house. The sound of the demon child dying filled the cold air.

"Run away, don't let him..."

The two windows grew smaller, smaller, smaller; the tears stopped.

"Don't let him catch you..."

This was it, he was now his.

"Kaza, Wim, I'm coming to save you..."

He left on that, fading into the thickness of the now-dying blizzard, leaving behind Creighton who despite going through more pain than he expected to get on this trip, despite almost dying, was smiling as well, barely, almost non-existent, for knowing that he was going to live to fight another day, to give Pate what's coming to him. He started to giggle inhumanly.

The blizzard quickly dissipated after the Astor's departure, leaving behind snow to be melted by the sun, returning that little spot of Forever Fall back into normalcy. Creighton could feel his frosted, battered face warmly tingle under the sunlight, opening his single eye to only be blinded temporarily, pulsing painfully, but yet Creighton did not mind; it was nowhere as bad as getting his right one pulled out by that freak.

He did feel the surge of fresh power, flowing throughout, giving him the energy to get back on his feet, grabbing what belonged to him, groaning, still coughing, still finding it to be a bit difficult to breathe while he did so. Creighton was surprise, and mildly disappointed by what he saw.

Everyone on the trip, as far as he could tell, survived the attack, whereas the men in Astor's gang had not, with their bodies scattered about, carved by blades, riddled with bullets, burned by all sorts of energy, crushed by blunt force, one was even bifurcated; the grim had fallen face first in the snow, with its left leg blow off, and Jaune, pretty beaten actually, exhausted on top of its back, with his sword shoved into its spinal cord. The demon boy was also dead, with Cardin and Blake standing by it, both looking pretty messed up by the attackers as well.

That was what surprised and barely disappointed Creighton, that everyone standing were basically given a proper thrashing by the men, grim, and abomination: all were panting, sweating, their clothing were ripped, their armor scratched or dented, their skin were bruised like bananas, cut up with blades severely enough to make Creighton cringe, bleeding from all over their bodies, some even looked like they had a few broken arms or legs. But yet, in the criminal's eye, none of their injuries looked too severe, he also did not doubt they would have had a hard time in this fight, all of the men in this gang were enhanced by Joy, thinking about it made him realize he should not have been surprised. Even Goodwitch looked like she had a bad time with these undead, though she was not as beaten up as worst than the others.

"Is... is everyone alive?" Creighton questioned, sounding like his vocal cords were exposed to a cheese grater as he stared on. But no one responded, he suspected they were too worn out to either answer him, or to care about answering him, or that everyone did survive. But it did not stop him from saying: "We need to get... get to the airship, before the grimm come over to say hi." Creighton went into a coughing fit after that, spewing out some of his blood onto the surface.

"He's right," Goodwitch thought she would never agree with Creighton on something in her lifetime, "EVERYONE! Assist each other up fast, we need to get the airship now!" A collective of nods and groans acted out, but the students complied, understanding the situation. Grimm are attracted to negativity, which there was an abundance of during their bout with the gang, so in short: Grimm are coming over to where they are, and they need to get out of there now.

Everyone helped those who were in dire need of it, those who suffered the worst out of all of them, Creighton guessed he had to do so as well, even if in his opinion that he suffered the worst out of everyone here. He could already see one to help, who much to his chagrin was none other than Nora, wincing in agony from her right ankle being broken, as a gyrm warrior with his head smashed in lied next to her, but it was a bit amusing to Creighton also to see her suffer.

"Alright Nora, let's get you up."

She was reluctant, despite having gone through with such an intense battle for life and death. Yet she knew letting Creighton help her would be the best thing she can do at the moment, they need to leave as fast as possible after all.

Creighton knelt over, laying his weapons down and picking Nora up, with her grunting in discomfort. "Come on now, huntresses don't cry."

"I'm not cryin _-_ ** _WHOA!_** " She was taken back as Creighton flung her over his shoulders, using the fireman's carrying technique on her, which he honestly did not if it the right thing to do or not, but yet he still went through with. "I-I swear to Monty, Creighton, if you drop me like Jaune yester-"

"-Shut up." He cut her off, looking down at his weapons, realizing he would not be able to hold them while carrying Jack like this. He looked around to find someone to carry them, spotting Cardin, who actually shocked Creighton by not looking as beaten as the rest of the students. "CARDIN- _**HAAGGH!**_ " The mace-wielder turned on a dime to his leader, weakly grinning, like as if he really wasn't happy at all, from the sight of Jack over Creighton's shoulders "Grab my weapons!" The Winchester nodded, running over to his leader and picking up his leader's axe and wyvern tooth, carrying them both in one hand.

"Hey Nora-

"-Don't say a fucking word, Cardin.-"

"-Language, Valkyrie." Creighton hoarsely hushed the biotic, with her cheeks flushing from how Cardin was enjoying the sight while being told to watch her mouth by CCRDL's leader. "I don't want to fucking deal with you shit ** _._** Either keep your mouth shut, or I'll force feed you your own toes and fingers."

"..."

"Good girl." The whole group recollected with each other, gathering in front of Goodwitch, proceeding to be ordered to head for the airship. Fortunately the vessel had not been landed too far from where they were, reaching the airship in less than two minutes, though it was an eternity for them with the sluggish pace they were going at, with Creighton constantly coughing his blood out, though it was starting to decrease in intensity.

Those severely injured were the first to board the ship, followed by the rest of the students, and last was Goodwitch, with the doors shutting close, the woman heading into the cockpit to tell the pilot to set a course for Beacon now.

Creighton sat aside Nora on one of the seats, with her lightly groaning from her injuries, while Creighton suddenly found himself going into another coughing fit, less severe than the first but still irritable. Blood did unfortunately get on Nora, but only a little. He was glad that it was not as much as he was coughing out earlier, but that did not mean he could stop using his aura to heal him.

The huntress-in-training was disgusted by the fact Creighton's blood was being coughed onto her, and she would have yelled at him too if it were not for the student just not having the energy to do so, and the fact that Creighton had his right eye torn out by those maniacs; Nora felt that he suffered enough already, even if he's a dick.

All of the teams sat themselves down, almost as if all their bodies had given out just by seeing the seats before them. The rest of CCRDL, tiredly and somberly, sat themselves by their leader, with the rest of JNPR sitting themselves next to Nora as well, with exactly the same mood as CCRDL, while RWBY and LLKY both sat across from the other eight, having the same attitude.

Soon the airship bellowed, departing from the surface of Forever Fall, blowing beside forest debris as it elevated into the air, before blasting off to the direction of Beacon Academy, leaving behind a field-trip gone horribly wrong.

Everyone sat in silence for the next ten minutes, all using what little of their aura was left to heal their bodies. Creighton would cough again and again from occasion, though now it was at its weakest point, with almost little-to-none of his blood coming out and coating the metallic floor of the airship, but again, he did not take it as a sign to stop using his aura.

It was by the end of this period the professor came out of the entryway to the cockpit; "Creighton, I want you to talk to me." He did not say anything though, he did not even get up from his seat. He hoped Goodwitch would take it as a message, telling her that Creighton did not want to talk to her. "Now, Creighton." He gave a small huff; Goodwitch did get the message, but he guessed she does not take 'no' as an answer.

He lumbered out of the seat, leaving behind his belongings, with his old bones creaking and another cough coming out, but bloodless this time. Creighton came over to the entryway between the cockpit and main portion of the ship, with the door shutting behind him, blocking him, Goodwitch, and a helmetless Carolina from the students.

"What do you want?" He asked, still with his voice scratched up, still hurting to speak, but not too much to discourage him from talking.

"Who were those gyrm, Creighton?"

Immediately, he replied to Goodwitch without hesitation, looking right at her as he did so; "I... I don't know."

"Are you telling the truth?"

"What... what the fuck? Why would you ask that? I had no idea who those assholes were!" He answered, making himself sound offended.

"Don't get too worked up by it Creighton, I just wanted to know." Carolina replied, prompting him to glare up at the redheaded-spartan, who scowled back at his only eye. "Did they do anything else to you?"

"No... no... just beated me," he felt up what was once the resting place of his right eye, "that's all." Goodwitch felt a pang of empathy for Creighton, another thing she never though would happen.

"Thank you Creighton, you can go back to your seat now." Creighton barely nodded, turning around and leaving the little space, slowly going back over to his seat next to Nora, giving another groan as he fell back down, sighing, rubbing a hand down his grizzled face, absolutely exhausted from today.

He ended up eyeing everyone around him, believing they will most certainly not be the same from this day. None of them, save for all of LLKY, looked as if they had ever killed anyone in their entire life to him, and sure they may have been gyrm, but they are just barely different from humans and faunus. He knew that from this day forward, they were never going to be the same; he most certainly was not when he took his first life.

"Hey," Creighton looked by his side, seeing that Jaune had gotten up, walked over to him, and was holding out Creighton's steel mask for him, "you left this back there." He glanced for a single time, back at Jaune, and back at his steel mask, before taking hold of one of his most cherished belongings.

"Thanks." The blond leader meekly nodded, going back to his seat, leaving everyone in the silence of discomfort once again. Cardin patted his leader's back, which essentially told the middle-aged man that all of CCRDL who were not him were glad that Creighton was all right.

"You did... did good out there, Cray." Their leader rested his head back, closing his eye, weakly smiling, remembering Astor's last breath.

"Yes..."


	8. Chapter 8

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, they belong to their respectful owners._**

* * *

 _"Creighton, what are you doing?"_

 _"Nothing, just going out."_

 _"Out to where?"_

 _"To... a restaurant, I'm hungry and I want something."_

 _"What? Were you going to ask me to come?"_

 _"No..."_

 _"Why?"_

 _"I was sure you'd say something like 'we can't go out to eat, you idiot,' or 'you're too fat to go out and eat.'"_

 _"What?! Why would you give the idea that I'd say that?"_

 _"Because you're a hardass whenever we're doing a job."_

 _"Okay, first, you're just as much of a hardass as I am whenever we're doing, and second, I was talking about the latter."_

 _"Oh... well, it's just that you often make fun of my health, like the asshole you are."_

 _"Okay, okay... yes, I have called you fat from time-to-time.-"_

 _"-Even though I'm not."_

 _"Eh... I would say you're most likely five pounds overweight, for a man of your height."_

 _"Then that means nothing! Just because someone weight five pounds over their limit, it doesn't make them fucking fat!"_

 _"... Creighton, is something troubling you? You're not usually this riled up."_

 _"I... okay, the true reason I wasn't going to ask you to come with me is because I plan on going to the brothel here. I've under some stress lately, it's been troubling me, so that's why I wasn't going to ask you to come with me, I thought you won't like coming to a brothel on this night."_

 _"... You're pathetic, Creighton.-"_

 _"-Hey, the whores here in Atlas are the cleanest on Remnant, and you know it. And don't you fucking judge me either, Pate, we've done worst than just going to a brothel."_

 _"Yes, but I don't have sex to relieve stress."_

 _"Even though it's a great stress reliever?"_

 _"I... is... okay, yes, that's true. But you're still pathetic."_

 _"Quiet, boy, do you still want to come or not?"_

 _"... Okay, yeah, I think I'll join you. But we can't stay out too late; we're close to that priestess, and I don't want her to get any farther away from us."  
_

 _"Don't worry about it..."_

* * *

"Mister Creighton!" The man jumped in his seat from the shouting professor, swearing to himself immediately, but mentally, for having been caught sleeping in a class. "I'd appreciate it if you would avoid sleeping in my class."

He knew he was going to get in trouble for saying this, but the he absolutely loathed professor Peach, so he took off his mask, to show the black eyepatch that covered his right, empty socket.

"Well, I wish I could get my eye back from that field trip you sent us on, but... ya know, that's never going to happen cause a drug trafficer took it away from me." A collective of gasps filled the room as Creighton smirked at the professor, amused by her reaction of controlled fury. She was primarily the reason why everyone went to Forever Fall last week, to collect sap for her class, which she did not get because of that attack made by Astor, nearly killing everyone on the trip; he knew it troubled the attractive professor, that was why he brought it up.

Yes, a week has passed and almost all of the students who went on the trip had made full recoveries, but again, Creighton was sure that mentally, none of them were healed; it's not every day you get kill a human being, even if they're infested with Joy.

But before she could say anything back at him, the bell rang, being the last of the school day, it all made him chuckle. Every student got out of their seats, taking their pens, pencils, notebooks, and heading for the door. It took Creighton a little while to collect his belongings since he always carried his weapons with him, making him the last one to reach the door.

"Creighton, stay in here." But Peach had other plans for him, which Creighton did not mind really, he had no homework to do for the day, he had nothing important to do, he can stay here and amuse himself for a little while longer.

He turned around to look at the professor, standing directly at him from the front of her desk. "Shut the door behind you, please." That request though, it was strange to Creighton. If she was just going talk to him, then why close the door? Just so that no students could listen in on them? The question actually negated all peculiarity Creighton had with the request, so he closed the door behind him, deciding to sit his personal equipment down next to it as well, and returned to the professor, towering over her.

"Creighton, what you just did now was absolutely unacceptable." The man rolled his eyes, not even making an effort to hide his exhausted feelings for her, which further agitating the professor.

"Why don't you cry ,me up a river then, bitch-"

"- _Excuse me?_ -"

"-You heard me, **_Peach,_** did I fucking stutter?" For Peach, Creighton had no qualms with talking in such a manner to her. "What? Were you going ask of me to apologize for what I brought up in your class? Cause the answer's no, bitch, I'm not saying sorry." The man took a step forward, or more like a small shuffle, towards Peach, which she did not notice; the huntress was too distracted by the way Creighton was conversing with her.

"Mister Cre-"

"- Don't you fucking call me **_mister_**. It's either Creighton the Wanderer, of Mirrah," he took another small step towards her, "or just Creighton. Be glad I'm letting you even use my name, I don't even want to be taking your pathetic **_science_** class anymore, let alone you violating my name with your filthy-whore mouth!-"

"-CREIGHTON!" He stopped, smiling at the flushing professor with a shit-eating grin. "I will not tolerate your behavior any furth-"

But he wanted to talk again soon after; "Tolerate? That's right, you're not tolerating my _behavior,_ it's more like you're _taking_ it, like a submissive bitch. I mean look at you! You're a fucking huntress! You could strike me at any moment for me talking to you like this!-"

"-No, I can't, CREIGHTON! This isn't Mirrah!-"

"-Well, whether that's the truth or not, it only means you can do **nothing,** except taking it, like a **_biiiiitch-_** " He took another step forward, only to feel a white-hot-burning sensation slap itself across his face, and all Creighton did in return was just look back down at the flushing professor, looking surprisingly fearful, but it was small, yet enough to fill Creighton with more glee. "So what was that then? Did you just lie to me? Or are you a slutty hypocrite." He recovered the lost distance between him and her.

"Creighton stop-"

"-Then make me stop!" Another step this time, which was actually noticed by the flustered Peach, forcing her to take a step back. "You have the power to stop me, right? Or are you just a lie too? A child huntress, left to be violated by men, to be slaughtered by monsters." Creighton moved forward, and Peach moved back, with her frightened nature growing with bitterness.

"Why are you acting out li-"

"-Cause I fucking hate you!" The shout was loud enough make her wince, causing Peach to actually stumble back, but to be only caught by her desk, with her rump hitting the edge, slight knocking the air out of her, with the woman placing he palms on the edge. It was by then Creighton lunged himself forward at her, closing the distance to the point that their face were only half-a-foot away from each other; it was all genuinely terrifying for the professor. "It's because of you, **you,** that I had to got my eye **ripped** out, that I was **tortured** **,** " by then, Creighton placed his hands on the woman's throat, though not choking her, just trying to give her a sense of the feeling, with his musk filling her nostrils, "to the brink of death, by some undead gyrm!"

Peach should have been fighting back at this moment, she should be pushing him back, or kick him in the groin. But she just too scared by him, too scared to lash out, he was sounding less and less human the more he talked. "It's because of you that we all almost died."

"I... I-I had no idea that was going to h-"

"- _Shhhh._ " He shushed her, leaning over and in her ear, as he placed his cold, callous hands on her warm, smooth ones, holding them down with little effort, pressing his lifeless chest against her; he started to sound like his normal self again, to Peach at least. "I know, I know, you didn't know they were there, that those men would come for us." He blew a bit of hot air in her ear, further discouraging her from doing anything but listen, with a small hitch in her breathing.

"But still, it's because of you sending us to fetch... _**sap,**_ " he grabbed her wrists with iron-grips, using enough force to make her whimper a bit from the unexpected pain, "that we were subjugated to pain." He started to list them: "Little Ruby almost got crushed by a grimm, Weiss took an axe into right shoulder, a demon child nearly burned Yang alive, Blake's got a black eye and a concussion " tears started to run down her cheeks, along with a weakened anger sitting still in her heart.

"Jaune had his right patella crushed by a hammer, Pyrrha was electrocuted by the demon- oh but he lived though, don't you worry." Peach bit her lips. "What else happened... oh- Lie was shot in the gut three times, thankfully the bullets went right through him though. Russel's left wrist," his grip tightened on Peach's, inciting another whimper, "was broken into five pieces. Cardin suffered from internal bleeding, Sky had a concussion and a knife nearly ripped into his left kidney, Dove's jaw was broken in three, and-"

"-S-Stop." Creighton did so as well, hushing his lips in response to the stuttering voice. That weakened anger was now defeated by sorrow, as Peach stood there, embarrassed, broken by words, just words, not fists or guns or blades. Creighton destroyed her with somewhat simple language, but by using that to recite what happened to them. It all made him feel warm in his heart. "I-I-I'm sorry, o-okay?"

"... Tch, Peach, where I come from," he nibbled at the bottom of her left earlobe, which for some reason she could not comprehend at the moment, turned her breathing warmer, "sorry doesn't cut it."

"T-Then what d-does?" His grin remained the same, but he pulled back to look down at the flushed, teary-eye professor, taking it all in of the image he created, still holding onto her wrists.

"This will do." He leaned down again, this time to her face, meeting her gray-green eyes with his single cobalt one, and planted his thin, veteran lips, onto her plump, sweet, pink-red one; they opened up for his.

Their tongues collided, fighting for dominance as Creighton released his grip of her wrists, letting her wrap her arms around his battle-worn back, as his right hand grabbed the back of her head, pushing her forward to deepen their session, while the other scarred hand snaked its way into her skirt, gently rubbing his fingertips up against her clothed entrance, prompting the huntress to mewl into his mouth, then pulling back her hands to grab his hand that was invading her bottoms, further pushing it down.

 _"Creighton, Creeeiiighton..."_

* * *

"Creighton!" The man jumped his seat, shocked, confused, not understanding what was happening. "It's your turn man." It was a dream, a simple, dirty dream, that Creighton was enjoying, judging from how tight his pants had become.

He looked across from him at the table, to see Lothric, the tall frail boy he came along with to the library, with the chess game in between them. Beside Lothric's left was Dove, reading a weapon magazine, and then next to him, was Yuria, who was busy with writing an essay for some class Creighton did not care to know about. To Creighton's right was Sky, watching something on his scroll, which Creighton leaned over to see what it was.

"Come now Creighton." But Lothric really wanted the criminal-knight to finish his turn.

"Damn it Lothric, shut it. You woke me up from a **great** dream; I was about to hate-fuck Peach." And just like that, everyone around stopped what they were doing, disgusted, except for the prince, he more unfazed than anything.

"Ugh, must thou bring up such personal matters?"

"No Yuria, I just wanted to make you all uncomfortable."

"Well great job, _leader_ , you fucking did it man."

"I knew one day I'd make you proud, Sky."

"I'm not... whatever, just play your dumb game." Lark stated, turning back to his video while Creighton looked back at Lothric's icy eyes, waiting with unkempt anticipation, his mouth watering, waiting to take the man down right after his turn.

Then Creighton took his white pawn, followed up by Lothric moving his black knight to taking his white king.

"I win." The wanderer sat there, staring down at the board, proceeding to grab the board, then throwing it over his head, scattering the pieces along with it.

"This game is stupid." It all did not faze Lothric, but it did take everyone else by surprise, and the prince was surprised by how the librarian had yet to come over to tell them to quiet down.

"Okay Creighton, think of it as you like, I'm not picking up all those pieces."

"Oh well, I'm not picking them up either, it's not my game."

"It is not mine either."

"... What?"

"I merely found it on one of the tables here."

"..."

"..."

"Hey!" Lothric puckered his lips as Creighton hissed, as Russel, Yuria, and Dove all shook their heads in chagrin, reacting to the frustrated redhead boy of exchange team SSSN- Scarlet David- approached their table; the two assumed that the board was his. "What the hell are you doing with this?" He pointed down at the mess, still staring, specifically at Creighton.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... Well?!" The silence the wandering knight was giving Scarlet enraged him even further, doing so enough that he shoved Creighton's cranium, causing everyone else at the table to grimace when seeing Creighton slowly turn his head at the redhead of SSSN. Scarlet actually gulped in anxiety, suddenly finding himself wanting to run out of the library, yet fear paralyzed his barely-noticeably trembling knees, looking right into that soulless cobalt eye.

"... What do you say?"

"... So... sorry." He looked down at his feet, feeling shame being forced upon him. Creighton leaned forward, just so he could look back at the defeated Scarlet.

"Good little bitch, now pick up this mess you made."

"... But, you made th-"

"-Boy, you're no Flying Horror of Vale, clean it up, or I'll have to get the janitor to clean up the remains of a Haven-exchange student found in the boiler room three before midnight, discovered by **me**." He whimpered, just being heard the faintest by everyone, before getting down on his knees and picking up the pieces of his chess game, with Creighton smiling down at him, taking pleasure in his work.

Then his stomach growled, and he frowned, getting out of his chair. The criminal stepped on Scarlet's hand, not apologizing either when he heard another doggish-whimper.

"I'm going to the dining hall, anyone want to come?"

"... Nah, I'm good." Sky responded, still watching his video.

"Are you serious? You're not going to say a thing about this?!" Dove gestured to the broken member of SSSN, still picking up the chess pieces, not even daring to look up at Bronzewing out of fear that Creighton may lash out at him for doing so.

"Hey man, at this point, if Creighton doesn't hurt them physically, then it's all right." The swordsman's jaw dropped. "I mean, come on, it's mainly Scarlet's fault here for being such a pussy."

"He has a point," Lothric interjected, "if Scarlet were to have more credence in himself being a capable fighter, then surely he would have rebelled against Creighton's cruelty." The middle-age man just shook his head at them, discussing about him as if he was not even there. The man adorned his steel mask and grabbed his Dragonslayer's axe and wyvern tooth.

"Would anyone else like to come?"

Dove threw his hands up in the air; "Fine, fine, I'll come."

"You don't have to Dove, you can just sit your chubby-little ass here and keep on reading, it's better than you stuffing your mouth full."

"... The fuck you said to me?"

"Well, you are a bit, barely actually, but still pudgy." Creighton explained, causing his teammate to indiscriminately feel his chin, to feel if he had a second one forming. Albeit he did not have a second one, he could still sense one hardly forming. Then he just shook himself, appearing agitated.

"Fuck you old man, I won't go then."

"... Okay, cool, what about you?" He looked at the youngest prince, feigning ignorance to the fuming loathing coming out of Bronzewing.

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't; I must- "

"-A simple 'yes' is all I need. Seriously, I may be from one of the primal kingdoms like you, but you don't see me talking like that."

"That is due to thou's homely lineage of peasantry." He huffed, annoyed at Yuria's reason for Creighton not talking like her and Lothric, even if it is true. Those of higher descent in the primeval kingdoms tend to speak in a more dignified manner, whereas those like Creighton simply do not learn it. They can if they want to, it is just that they are not taught with disciplinary teaching to speak with such personality.

"Are you coming or not?"

"... I am almost finished with this, and we have one more day before Monday comes, I'll-"

"- _**Yes or no?**_ "

"... No, if thou will stay in such a foul tenor." She growled, insulted by his interruption.

"Whatever, see all of you later." He wanted to punt Scarlet's head while he was picking up the mess Creighton blamed him for, he really did, he knew it would be hilarious for him, but his and Cardin's deal restricted him from that. And since he started to notice how his team have been getting less and less dirty looks from other students, the Wanderer assumed it was all working. So Creighton just walked around Scarlet, and left the library.

It was a rather cloudy, cold Saturday, spotless of any rain so far late in this afternoon, though many of the students still kept themselves inside the buildings of Beacon. Creighton did not mind this weather, he favored it, it's basically the kind of climate one would find in Mirrah, but sometimes it might be humid rather than cool. Still, the criminal preferred this weather over the rest, just because it usually does not make him sweat profusely under his armor. That was one thing he distastes about Vale, it's weather is mostly too hot for him to work efficiently in. But even then, it was not as horrible as others such as Forossa, Carthus, or Vacuo, so there was that to be grateful for.

Though that didn't make him like Vale anymore, nor any of the axis kingdoms, he still hated them all; having a war break out just because of individualism being threatened, or something like that, it was just childish to him.

The criminal reached the dining hall with relative ease, it was like that because no one who was not a friend of his ended up confronting him for some reason that would get his blood pressure rising. Creighton pushed the door, only to find it stuck. So he gave another one, actually pushing the doors somewhat, but yet they still did not open.

"Hey," he looked to his right, seeing one of the Beacon custodians, an old man, staring at him, "the dining hall's closed for the weekend."

"What? Why?"

"For cleaning buddy."

"Where am I suppose to eat then?" Creighton asked, getting up in the old custodian's face, towering over him, piercing through his emotions and reforming them into fear with his eye.

"Y-You go down to Vale city, they got plenty of places to eat." Creighton still stood over him, though now looking straight ahead with a thousand-yard stare, realizing how screwed he was. He knew he was right, the city must have somewhere to eat, and it was not a difficult chore to go down there, the only problem was simple: Creighton does not have lien.

"... Thanks." But he still thanked the custodian, walking around him, heading back outside, feeling a _tad-bit_ infuriated.

He was stripped of all his currency when he was first incarcerated. All that treasure, those riches he and Pate had garnered over their career together, it was all taken away from him and his former partner, so be one of the statutes of Mirrah. At this point, Creighton would consider himself to be the poorest in Beacon, be it not for his axe, armor, and wyvern tooth, they all do hold some monetary value, but selling them just for a few lien was sacrilegious to him; his feelings for the few personal belongings of his were too immense for him to just simply part ways with.

It all made him growl, irritated, what was he to do now? The answer was simple, and a little bit humiliating: he was going to have to ask his teammates for lien.

There was also the choice to simply not eat anything at all for the whole weekend. He has survived for long periods of time eating almost nothing at all, though he would drink some water once in awhile.

But damn that, he wasn't on an adventure gone horribly wrong, he was not in one of the primeval kingdoms, he was in Vale, a student at Beacon, he should not have to go through two whole days without nothing but water. But yet that seemed like to be the only other option.

There was always the option to steal the lien from someone, but he was not a proficient pickpocketer, the only way he would be able to steal someone's lien was if he broke into there room and searched for currency, or anything valuable he could just pawn for lien.

In fact, why the hell not? All he would need to do is kick open someone's dorm room- after checking to see if anyone was in there- search the room for what he wants, then scram. A fool-proof plan, right?

Then he remembered they had security cameras set up in the corridors of the dorm buildings.

But wait, he could always go down to the ghetto of Vale city and rob some schmuck of all their hard-earned money. He did not care whether or not he would ruin their lives, Creighton has already done so long before even forming a partnership with Pate. Whatever it is that Creighton wants, he gets, so be it the _only_ statute of Creighton's world. And who was going to stop him? The person or faunus he robbing? What a stupid joke.

Though, Creighton decided to try asking his teammates for some lien before resorting to robbery anyways. Might as well try it before mugging someone, that was what was going through his mind. The Wanderer also did not feel like going all the way down to Vale, then having to walk to the ghettos- he had no lien to pay for public transportation- then have to wait 'till night falls, just to rob someone.

So he went back to the library, now finding that Cardin, Russel, Lorian, and Karla had now joined the others at the table, while the presence of Scarlet Davis had disappeared. Creighton walked over to them, being noticed by the big'ol mace-wielder himself.

"'Sup Cr-"

"-Hey, any of you got any of lien to spare?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... They closed the dining hall for cleaning, so I have to go eat down at Vale city. But I don't have any lien."

"... Damn," was the response of Russel, "that sucks, having to beg your tea-"

"-I'm not begging." Creighton took offense to that actually, even stepping forward to the Thrush, invading his personal space, clearly pissed by his teammate's false observation. "I'm just asking."

"... Uh, well, the answer's no, big guy."

"... Fine, I can always go down to the ghetto and rob someone." No one said a thing in response, they all just sat there, staring at him, baffling him. "Seriously, no one is going to object to that."

"It is more similar to that we simply believe you're bluffing." Karla replied, earning herself a stare down of ire from the old student.

"I'm not, I will go down there and mug someone. Whatever it is that I want, or need, then I get it. And since all of you believe I'm bluffing, then there's clearly no one out there going to stop me. Though not like it would matter, I'd kick the ass of that shitstain and any other _**motherfukcer**_ that stands in my way of taking whatever I **want.** " He turned around, smiling under his mask, hoping this would work. And if not, whatever. "See ya."

It was when he took his first step that one of his teammates- Cardin- got out of his seat.

"Whoa whoa whoa, Creighton," he got in front of his leader, stopping him, "remember our deal? I don't bully anyone, and you don't act like a psycho."

"Then how the hell am I suppose to eat, Cardin? Should I just not eat anything for this day and the next? That seems a bit unfair."

"Nah nah, how about I take us, the whole team, down there, anywhere you want. It's my treat." Creighton gandered up and down the boy, before looking back at his team.

"What, so we're suppose to leave LLKY behind?"

"Well... I mean, paying for five people is a lot, let alone nine. And plus, if Lothric and Lorian are coming, then they got to pay, they're the richest out of all of us."

"Just because we are princes of our kingdom, Cardin, does not signify that we are immediately well-endowed in wealth."

"... How much lien did you guys bring with you over to Beacon." Lorian coughed, as if he was embarrassed, while his little brother replied, sounding a bit sheepish.

"Over... three-hundred thousand lien." Right there was when Creighton felt what was a rare emotion for him: jealousy. They have that much lien with them right now, just to spend willy-nilly on Gods' know what. Of course, he then assumed that was not that case, and that they just spend it on school supplies, clothing, and other necessities, like food.

"Yeah, see? Whatever, you guys coming?"

* * *

"Well well well, look who we have here, lost human?"

"Mmm, yes, I believe so actually."

"Perhaps I can help."

"Ah, thank you for offering assistance, Lilly, I've had quite the adventure, and everyone I met up with have been so unfriendly."

"How... how do you know my name?"

"No need to fret, my dear, just tell me the truth."

"Seriously, tell me right now, or else I'm gonna-"

"-Do what? Use that switchblade of yours while I have these two? Don't be a fool, faunus."

"Fuck you! Tell me right-"

"- **Stop.** "

"..."

"Now, how about you help me like you offered, okay?"

"... O-Okay, just... p-p-please don't kill me."

"Just tell me the truth; where are the White Fang holding the shimpment in Vale city?"

"H-How would I- _**AAAAAGGGH!**_ "

"What did I just say to you? Tell me the truth."

"O-Okay okay, t-they're meeting up a-a-at the port, tonight, at twelve A.M."

"Twelve? Gah, it would be really nice if you animals could hold your gatherings earlier, like perhaps ten? It would be really nice."

"S-Sorry-"

"-Don't apologize, it's not your fault that you lived this life, one where you were born into a race faced with subjugation every day, it makes it nearly impossible for a faunus to prosper, it's only natural that you join alongside danger to make it in reality."

"W-What do you mean lived-"

"-But you should always be cautious of the dangers that comes with this life, sure you may be protected by your fellow faunus, but what if one day, a monster sneaks into your village, breaks into your home, and holds its razors up against your throat, with none near you? What then, hm?"

"P-P-Please, **_please,_** d-don't do this."

" _Ohhh,_ I don't want to do it Lilly, I really don't, but life's not going well for me either, especially now that someone has given my face for all of Vale to know. I'd try to leave, but that would attract unwanted attention, so that's why I'm here, word is that an important man is going to attend this gathering of the White Fang, he... oh _no no no_ , sweetie, don't cry, please, you're going to make me feel worst for doing this...


	9. Chapter 9

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, they belong to their respectful owners._**

* * *

 _"Creighton..."_

 _"What Pate?"_

 _"Do you... ever wish things were different?"_

 _"Uh... why do you ask?"_

 _"It's just... was this the life you expected to have?"_

 _"Pate... don't be a fool, you know we were marked for this life the moment we were born, the moment we kill our first. I already told you this story."_

 _"I... know, but... what do you think your life would have been like if we weren't born with this semblance?"_

 _"Don't worry about it, it's not worth thinking over."_

 _"Says who?"_

 _"Me."_

 _"Why"_

 _"It... just take my word for it, boy: it's not worth thinking about, it'll make you hate life, because there's nothing you can do about it."_

 _"So you have thought about it then."_

 _"I... yeah, yeah I did. Okay? So stop prying like a child, and go to sleep, okay?"_

 _"..."_

 _"Good man..."_

 _"..."_

 _"..."_

 _"... We would have never met each other..."_

 _"..."_

 _"... I would have definitely left that order though, I still won't have any desire to guard the Supreme Acanth. Then I would just... travel, like what we're doing, but less violently, and with no goal whatsoever..."_

 _"..."_

 _"... Creighton, would you still be such a wretched old man like you are now?..."_

 _"... Okay, if I tell you, would you stop acting like a child and go to sleep?"_

 _"... Maybe."_

 _"... A lot of things would be different: everyone whom I killed would be alive up to this point, I would be fighting for different reasons, ones... ones that our world deem is right, for justice, to protect good. I would still be in the White Stag, I would be helping those who died in the many wars still live on, rather than killing them for myself..."_

 _"..."_

 _"Sometimes I think to myself, 'I could be happy without killing, I could be joyful in that life without violence._

 _"..."_

 _"I could have had a family with Lucy, I could be leading the White Stag, I could be the king of my own country, we could have never met each other, and gone our whole lives without knowing about one another, a lot of those who we loved would still be with us, we would have had a chance at a life we wanted once..."_

 _"..."_

 _"... But no, I guess we're just gonna be killing people for the rest of our lives, until we get what makes us happy..."_

* * *

Before they could go down there to eat, Creighton had to get two scabbards from the workshop. When he asked why, his team answered that it was just the law that weapons can't be exposed out in public view, unless there is an event that calls for a hunter or huntress, and trainees, to use their weaponry. And at first, Creighton was not going to get such things for him to holster his axe and wyvern tooth, but after hearing that he can be jailed for having his weapons out, there was no other choice for him that did not involve using a locker.

That was something he also hated about the axis kingdoms: all four of them are pretty sensitive when it came to holding weapons of any kind out in public.

So he got the scabbards, old ones at that. He had no time to wait for them to make him fresh ones, Creighton was happy with using hand-me-downs. He knew he could also just buy two new scabbards down in the city, but again, he had no lien, and he did not want to make Cardin by him two scabbards; that would put him in debt.

Albeit what they were doing right now- the Winchester was treating the whole team to a meal- made his leader feel a bit on-edge, again he felt like this would put him in debt. Yet he shoved those thoughts back when Cardin asked: "So, where do you wanna eat at?" It was Creighton's decision after all. But there was just one problem: he did not know of any restaurant in Vale city.

"I... you pick."

"What? I said it's your decision, Cray."

"I don't know any of the places here."

"Well, what are you in the mood for then?

"Anything." His answer got a low huff out of the Winchester, an irritated scowl from Bronzewing, subtle shaking of the head from Thrush, while Lark just ignored it all. "I don't know- there," he pointed over to a place, not even bothering to read its name, "let's eat there."

"All right, let's go." Creighton took one step out onto the street, only to be pulled back by Cardin, saving him from being ran over by several Vale police cars zooming by, right in front of them.

"Monty- fuck Creighton, don't you ever look both ways before you cross? Couldn't you at least hear them?!" He did not reply to Dove, Creighton just stared where the vehicles were heading into, wherever it was though he did not know. But from judging by how many there were, Creighton took a guess that whatever it was that they were called out for was severe.

"Jeez, that's a lot of them."

"I was just thinking that." He said back to Sky, still looking over into the direction. "It must be serious. And it is also none of our concern, let's go."

"Wow Creighton, you're going to make a _great_ hunter, you know that?"

"I knew I'd make you proud one day, Russel." His leader shot back smoothly, yet still sounding low, barely guttural. A booming sound made itself known to everyone around Creighton, everyone in the intersection, walking on the sidewalks, sitting in front of a cafe, they all went quiet. It piqued Creighton's interest very little though, even shrugging soon after.

"Again, it's not our problem. Let's get going."

"Are you serious?" He fumed beneath his mask, turning heel to look at what Russel had to say now. "What if it's a terrorist attack? Don't you fucking think we should stop it?"

"... _Noooo_." He replied, still nonchalant.

"Creighton-"

"-No, Cardin, listen, all of you. The police here can handle it, I'm sure of it. For all we know, maybe that was a firework that went off-"

"-That was not a firework-"

"-Shut up, Sky. It's still none of our concern."

"But we're training to become huntsmen! We've been training for four fucking years to get where we are! Some even longer! We're not weak, Creighton!" Dove shouted, further irritating Creighton's mood with almost making a scene. "We should stop anything that's wrong-"

"-You're right, we _should._ But you know what? We're not. You all may have been training for shit like this, and sure, you've all proven to me that you can handle yourselves back on that field trip, but you know what? **I. Don't. Give. A. Fuck.** Whether you agree with it or not, it's my decision to make-"

"-Bullshit, we-"

"-Fucking quiet!" Creighton's turn to shout somehow managed to silent the whole intersection more so than the distant boom did. "I'm doing this for you own well-beings," he spoke in a more hushed tone this time, "I'm not risking your lives for a mission with no reward. If we go over to wherever that explosion came from, wherever those police are going to, there's a chance that any of you will die, and I'm not risking that, especially when we would get nothing out of it. Understand? I don't give a fuck if you're all disgusted by my decision, deal with it."

"... What if Mild-Mannered Pate is over there? I bet you'd fucking run over there in a heartbeat if you knew he was there."

"Ha, you may have a point, Cardin, but again, he may not be there at all. Maybe it's just the White Fang, or some petty gangsters, maybe a suicide bomber even. Like I said before though, I'm not risking any of your lives just for a whim that Pate might be there."

"Why the fuck do you care about what happens to us? Huh? I thought you just wanted Pate to die. You've never given us any sign that you care about us, asshole-"

"-That may be so. But I do care for all of you, more so than when I first met the four of you. Not as much as I once cared for Pate though, bu-"

"-What?" Russel stepped forward, wanting to make sure he heard Creighton right. "What do you mean by that?" Creighton was quick to reply.

"He and I were once partners in treasure hunting, that's what I meant, all before he went and blamed me for those murders of his."

"Did... did you kn-"

"-No, I had no idea he was committing them, the fucker doing so behind my back. I found out about it too late, and now I'm here, having to tell you all about this shit while I'm starving damn it. Now come on, just... just ignore what's happening over there, it's not worth it. Got it?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Good, n-" He stopped dead when another explosion, much more immense than the last, made all of the heads turn, silencing Creighton with the air being sucked out of him when he saw the familiar sight of a dark-orange aura blowing up into the darkness filled with stars, and effectively prompting Creighton to break into a sprint over to the ports.

"SHIT- CREIGHTON!"

* * *

The alarm clock blared in the cold, disheveled motel room, beeping and beeping, stiring the thirty-nine aged man awake, rubbing a hand over his clean shaven face while yawning. He sat up in the bed, not having slept under the covers and blankets, finding comfort in the cool air around him, having been enough to put him to sleep. He looked over at the clock to read twelve A.M., shutting it off, smiling, he had been waiting for this.

He wore armor, being an immensely hard, solid tan leather chestpiece, which led down to his waist to make a short tan leather skirt, just as dense, with three pouches on his right and left side. His arms and shoulders were covered by metal spaulders and armpieces, with glove made of the same solid leather, covering his wrist, hands, and fingers; on his right ring finger, above the leather, was a ring made of metal, shaped into thorns. On his head was a metal helmet, shielding the sides and back of his cranium, while leaving a large space for his face, one of strong cheekbones, a somewhat strong chin and jawline, a nose that arched forward a bit, lips that were slightly above-average in size, and hazel-nut eyes. He wore dark gray trousers, tucked into long leather boots, with metal chinguards on each leg.

And in a corner of his room, was an average looking spear, measuring six inches less than seven feet, with a large, dark gray metal tip, sharpened to the point, soaked in so much power, now being capable of piercing anything the man desired; on the sides below the metal tip were two smaller metal tips, one pointing right, the other left, with the top of the spear where these metal pieces protruded from being tightly wrapped in brown leather. Along with the spear, was a black, gargantuan shield, measuring five feet in length, and three feet in width. The greatshield arched on the top, while its bottom had two arches.

Practically skipping over to them, the man grabbed the spear with his right hand by midway of the shaft, and wrapped the strap of his greatshield onto his left, proceeding over to the door and kicking it down, not caring about having to pay for the damages, not caring about the other occupants waking up- there was essentially no one else but him at the horrendous motel to begin with; one thing he did like about it though that it was in close proximity to the ports. This is the reason why he chose to wake up at twelve A.M., he just has to take a light jog, lasting no more than three minutes, throughout the desolate streets in whatever district he was in, the man had no idea what it was, and he did not care either, just as long as it was the district with the ports.

He started a slower pace when he spotted the large, metal fenced-off area that was his target, with a fence-gate on wheels, closing off the area from the outside world, with a booth to its left, with a plump, blond, balding security guard sitting on a chair, watching some show on a television box attached to the ceiling. This was all going to be too easy.

Casually, the man strolled up to the gate, being noticed by the plump security guard, who immediately looked agitated by the man's presence, like as if he were a bee stuck in a moving car. He stood his fat ass up, stomping out of the booth, confronting the heavily armed man, who stopped when he saw the security officer, who's name tag said 'Dan.'

"You fucking lost or something? This is a restricted area, and unless you got a permit or some shit like that, you're not getting in here." His personality was enough to make him laugh.

"Ho-oh-oh, no sir, I would just like to know if these are the ports."

"Who's asking?"

"Oh, no one you need not to be concerned with, just open this here gate and I'll be on my way."

"Gotta permit then?"

"... No."

"Eat my ass; you're not getting in here then."

"..."

"..."

"... Hmph, _'eat my ass,'_ what a thing to say." The man stepped forward, and slid his spear forward, piercing right through the guard's left thigh, ripping through flesh, fat, breaking through veins, arteries, and bone, soon pulling it out as well, to leave the man scream, falling on his fat ass, writhing with agony as the man went into the booth, finding a scroll with the mechanic to open the gate, though it required an eight-lettered password.

"Dan, if you tell me the password to opening this gate, I'll let you live out your homely life."

His response: "Eat my ass!"

"... You're in no position to make such a request," he placed his foot on the side of Dan's head, "tell me now!"

"EAT MY ASS!"

"Do you really want to die right here, right now?! Tell me!"

" **EAT MY ASS! _EAT! MY! ASS!_** " Infuriated, the spearman found his breaking point with this human, crushing Dan's skull, pulverizing teeth, the cranium, eye balls, and his brain, creating a foul mess on the concrete.

"Worthless fat bastard." The spearman grumbled, looking back over at the scroll, looking at the eight blocks that would represent the letters of the pass word. Could it be an eight-letter word? Or a phrase? "... No..."

He typed in 'Eat my ass,' and the fence-gate rolled open.

"... Ohhh, I'm so sorry." The spearman apologized, looking back down at the fat, lifeless body of Dan the Security Man, taken from their world. He noticed another option on the scroll, to disable the security camera of the ports, with another eight-letter password; whoesver idea it was to put it as an option on the scroll should be fired.

The spearman typed in the same phrase, coming out with a success that made him smile. "Well, at least your death would progress my journey." He wandered into the port, trotting by each docking bay, finding one empty after another, each one that was vacant outraged the man, starting to heavily breath, picking up the speed of his search, finding more and more with nothing inside or nearby. He swore if that faunus lied, then he would go back to that ghetto to pillage it and murder everyone who lived there.

"All right, grab the tow cables!" Then there was the shout, belonging to a male, off in the distance, not too far away, prompting the spearman to break into a sprint in the direction of where the voice had come from. The closer he got, the louder their shouting of instructions, the sound of machinery giants moaning, the noise of men and women straining themselves became cleaner to hear as the volume grew with the distance between them and him, ants for him to crush, like Dan the Security Man.

Soon he spotted his first two White Fang targets: a petite female with short silver hair and the ivory horn of a rhinoceros, and a lanky, yet lithe male with the tail of a scorpion, stretching five feet from his tailbone ended, both armed with useless assault rifles, wearing the pathetic white armor of their organization. The male was the first to notice him, startled by seeing the spearman charging him, holding his weapon back, ready to pierce any part of his body; it was obvious that he was hostile.

"We got contact! We got-"

He stopped when a dramatic rise in speed was posed by the attacker, lunging forward and spinning his spear forward, breaking through the rib cage, through both lungs of the faunus, forcing an agonizing cry to officially stop what the White Fang were doing. He dropped his assault rifle as the feeling of warm liquid started building up through his throat, tearing up as he drawn his last breath, falling to his knees, with the spearman pulling his weapon out soon after. He eyed the rhino faunus as he did so, sinister smirking at the poor thing, having fallen in shock and horror by what just happen.

The murderer lunged forward again, raising his greatshield at the screaming terrorist, and bringing it down to bluntly, horizontally bifurcate her by the waist, utterly silencing her with death. Her head fell back hard on the concrete, eye rolling back, with her blood pooling around them, meeting up with the other body of crimson from the scorpion faunus.

Everyone, baffled by the sudden arrival of this human, maddened by his audacity take the lives of two of their own right in front of them, were about to open fire on the spearman, prepared to riddle him with holes.

"Hey! What's the hold..." Then a man, or what the spearman assumed to be a man, came down the ramp of the ship that was stationed in the dock, stopped by what he was seeing. His bright orange hair covered by a black bowler cap with a red band and feather, while one of his slanted, dark green eyes were hidden by his bangs. More of his attire consisted of a white coat, lined with red, a grey scarf around his neck, black gloves, lengthy black pants, and sharp, black shoes; in his right hand was a dark grey cane. "Hold your fire! Who the fuck are you?!"

The spearman smiled at the fool; "I kill two of your soldiers, yet you don't release your fury upon me? You embarrass me, Roman Torchwick." His smooth, deep, cocky, nonchalant voice was an unexpected sound for their ears, disturbing the White Fang, while the human was only infuriated even more.

"Who the **fuck** are you?"

"Who I am is none of your concern, Torchwick. What you should be fretting over is," he pulled out a shard of a purple gem, not from a crystal of darkness, no, it was to light to be one of them; he and Roman both knew what it was really a part if, the sight of it widened the criminal's eyes in awe that it was here, "whether or not you have your piece as well."

"... Kill-" He stopped, feeling the sharpness of a black katana on his throat, as the spearman watched the young woman with a black bow having fallen from above, sneaking up on Roman. "Oh for f-"

"-Nobody move!" the White Fang bristled at the new voice, turning on a dime to see the criminal in white being left to the mercy of a new trespasser, readying their rifles and swords, despite what she said.

"Whoa! Easy there, little lady!"

"Yes," the spearman spoke up after Roman, slowly, methodically even, strolling over the two, now catching the attention of the White Fang, confusing them with who they should be more worried about, "easy there, child. You don't realize how much trouble you'd be in if you end his life."

"Then what about you?! You killed two of them just now!"

"Well, do be honest, I've actually killed three, the first of my victims was Dan the Security Man."

"... Who?"

"Ah- you killed Dan?! How could you? He was a cool guy, he just let us waltz in here without a problem!" Roman lied, Dan was as prejudice to them as he was to the spearman, though Dan still let them pass.

"He told me to eat his ass-"

"-ENOUGH!" The girl was not going to let this frivolous discussion go any further, removing the bow on the top of her head with her free hand, to reveal it having been a disguise, just to hide her cat ears, indicating she was really faunus. "Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you-"

"-Excuse me, Roman," the fact that he was ignoring her was just unacceptable to her, totally outrageous, "if I kill that girl for you, will you give me your piece?"

"Are you shitting me? Why would I give you it?! I should just have you killed and take yours for my own sake!"

"Then how will you find the third one then?"

"I-"

"-Shut it, both of you!-"

"-I know where it is, Roman," the spearman ignored her command, again walking, slowly as ever, towards them, "I can lead you to it."

"You're bluffing! There's no way you know where it is!"

"Then how did I know you have it then?" Roman opened his mouth to fire something back, but didn't, being speechless by the truth. "I was able to find you! I was able to find the one of Lau Lint!" The White Fang were just as shocked by hearing that name, whispering in astonishment, how could he have found her? Being heard by Roman, the spearman, and the cat faunus. "And I know where the third one is. We can find it together, and attain the treasure that is bestowed upon those find it."

"And you know where it is?" The sounds of sirens made themselves known, heading over to them at unlawful speeds, disgruntling everyone, save for the cat faunus.

Even still, the spearman smiled sickly, as if possessed by a demon, ignoring the police coming over; "It could all be yours Roman, 99 percent of it can be yours, I just want one thing from it. And all you need to do, is spare me, and let me deal with that problem that is holding you hostage." It was Torchwick's turn to smile, appreciating how things were beginning to sail smoothly for him yet again.

"All right sir,"The spearman caught the subtle action of Roman lifting his cane barely an inch up from the ground, "go after her." Then he shot, creating a massive explosion, taking the spearman by surprise; today's weaponry were getting more and more dangerous, he swore.

That shock soon turned into fury though, at the fact that Roman just; _'Did he just kill himself?! Fucking bastard is just as senseless as Cre-'_ The spearman was relieved when he saw Roman again, stopping his train of thought, watching the redhead jump out of the soldering area, with the cat faunus flying away and striking one of the Schnee company's steel containers, falling to the ground in a daze. He was sure the White Fang would have gone after her, had it not been for the arrival of the VPD having just reached them right there.

He had two options now: either run over to Roman and take him to safety while leaving the White Fang to handle the police, or stay here and fight the law enforcement of Vale himself. But before he could make up his mind, the criminal mastermind started to assault the cat faunus, while Creighton felt a bullet whiz right by his ear, prompting to act on instinct and turned, crouching behind his greatshield right as when the firefight began.

The members of the White Fang scrambled over to corners of massive Schnee Company containers, forklifts, and small crates, while the police hid behind their own vehicles. Both parties unloaded in each others direction, bullets occasionally deflected off of his shield from the side of the VPD, some again brushing by, with the terrorist behind him making the effort to not hit the spearman while returning fire, all the meantime he turn his head back to just catch the glimpse of Roman running into the maze of containers, chasing the cat faunus as the low buzzing of bullheads started to come along the scene, opposite of where the police came from.

"Those better be more Fangs." The man charged forward after growling that out for no one to hear, building up aura in his legs, shield, and spear, bracing himself for impact.

"WACTHOUT-WATCHOUT-WATCHOUT-"

The spearman raised his shield immediately when reaching the police, quickly slamming the metal of flowing aura into the concrete, creating a behemoth crater during the process. Concrete blew out in shards, some hitting right through officers that went soaring as the Schnee Company containers stacked on one-another toppled, while the vehicles were scorched, being blasted and colliding with structures; some vaulted over them, the White Fang behind him even fell from the overpowering force before them. It was almost like an earthquake.

The burning bodies clashed against thin metal, looking like embers that would occasionally fly out of a beastly fire, flesh burning a glowing orange, falling onto the cold concrete where they still smouldered.

Pate quickly turned back, looking into the direction where Roman ran off, now being a mess of containers clustered messily about. By now more sirens could be heard, while the bullheads were now right over the rest of them, obviously belonging to the terrorists, telling from the fact that they had not opened fire on neither the spearman or White Fang.

The man wanted nothing from them, running staright over to where his target went, navigating through what was his fault. He cursed himself for pulling out such a devastating maneuver, now seeing the consequences for his actions; he almost began to fear that the mastermind had been flatened by one of the falling containers, even shouting out: "WHERE ARE YOU ROMAN?!"

The spearman was simply wandering with haste at this point, clenching everything in his body as he searched for the criminal, intent on reaching _and_ saving him before he dies. Another firefight soon erupted again, being more ferocious than the last one, with faunus and humans blasting in anger towards each other. It was a sign of wellness to him, it meant that the police would be too distracted with the White Fang to even know what is going down in the background; it would all make his escape much easier.

And there he was.

It was on first sight that the spearman went for it, seeing Roman being ganged up on by the cat faunus and now a tanned, blond, male monkey faunus in blue cargo pants, a white open jacket to show off his impressive set of abs, and with a dark-red staff, fighting, attacking, hoping to get a well-needed advantage over the criminal mastermind. But since none of them notice the spearman, he had the element of surprise, again, sprinting for the monkey faunus in the same fashion when going after the but not smashing into the concrete this time.

At the last second, the cat faunus noticed the spearman having caught up to them, but she was too late with warning her ally of the attacker. She watched him take on the the charging beast of a human being, not stopping when he struck him, and actually kept of charging with the monkey faunus stuck on his gargantuan black shield, ramming the boy into a stack of Schnee Company containers, toppling the two on top, fortunately falling away from them. The sight of such power from a half-ass looking charge distracted her to the point that Roman jumped away, and fired from his cane once more, catching her off-guard not with another gunshot, but a grappling hook on a tether, sprinting in a circle-like motion as it struck, and wrapping it around the cat faunus, squeezing her body, incapacitating her. She could not believe herself with letting a single attack catch her attention, when it even was not directed at her, while fighting with such a murderous man.

" _ **AAAAGGGH!**_ " Yowled the monkey faunus, as the stinging of his own flesh, his own scapula and clavicle snap into uneven pieces, having a spear pierce into his shoulder, with the blow having utterly drained him of all his aura with monstrous vigor. The man didn't even take the weapon out when he started to walk over to Roman, just holding onto it, dragging the boy by his wound, worsening it and the pain, forcing the boy to wince, grit his white teeth, try to pull the spear out, but in a response to this, the spearman drove his spear further through, putting down his attempt to escape, making him scream again, finding pleasure with his howling. The sight of him grinning at her friend's suffering provoked the cat faunus into struggling against her restraints, earning a brutish kick from Roman.

"Ya know... for a guy having part in ruining this operation with me and the White Fang, which would have done wonders for us, you're pretty alright."

"Thank you, Roman." He pulled his spear out, only to plunge it back into the boy for a second time, stabbing into his right kidney, dwarfing the pain he previously felt in his shoulder, howling like a dying coyote, almost crying as he did so. Then he pulled it out once more, only to plunge it in again, repeating the process four more times, hitting non-vital spots, absolutely devastating the faunus, all the while his friend watched, maddened to great heights, wanting to throttle the man until he apologized with his last breath.

"STOP YOU FUCKING MONSTER!"

"Yeah, man, I mean I'm grateful for you saving me, but... come on, he's just a dumb kid." The spearman hissed in disdain, pulling out again, refraining from attacking once more.

"I understand what you mean. Though it doesn't matter now, I'm afraid he'll bleed out before the paramedics arrive." He looked down at the fuming cat faunus, grinning from examining her. "Consider yourself lucky, an old _acquaintance_ of mine had a thing for female cat faunus, he loved to _toy_ with them before killing them, a vicious monster he was. Old Creighton..." Then total fear, shock, and awe took over her, surprising the spearman, having expected her to remain agitated.

"Y-You're him, Pate." His mind went blank for a second, almost not believing what he had just heard.

"How do you know my name?"

"Hey, forget about it, we need to lea-"

"-He told us about you." He glowered, feeling a weight of old detest for him reemerge from deep within the mind, responding with punting the cat faunus in the face.

"Who is **he?** Tell me now!" He watched her grit her teeth in ire, watching a stream of red flow from a newly-formed gash on her forehead; she suddenly started to smirk however, undeserving of her. In retaliation to this, he punted her head again, further injuring her, only to be met with the same smirk again, while she lied the side of her head down. "You little cunt! Fine! I'll just end you then."

"... I think he... he has something to say though." He let out a shaking breath, not Pate or Roman, but him, having watched from the top of a container, following with it a jump to the concrete. It was heard by both men, turning to see Creighton, heaving with inhuman fury, pupils reduced to tiny specs of darkness, his breathing was still shaking, all because of how long he waited for this.

"Who the f-"

"-Pate..."

"... Creighton..."

"I'm going to kill you." Pate smiled.

"Not before I d-"

Four more landed all around them; Cardin, Sky, Dove, and Russel, all drawn with their blades, ready to strike as soon as Creighton does.

"Shit." Roman expressed, being ignored by everyone else as more bullheads and sirens filled the air, with a single drop of liquid hitting the top of Creighton's mask, followed by an onslaught of more and more.

"What? Who are these people Cray? Children mercenaries? Where'd you get the money to eve-"

"- **Shut your fucking mouth**. They're just here to get Blake and Sun to safety while I deal with you."

Pate's smile shrank in size, looking down at the bleeding-out monkey faunus, then at the cat faunus, still with them, though still looking like she can go out at any moment.

"Release her." Roman looked at Pate like he was a lunatic, baffled by his audacity to give him an order, let alone one that would deprive them of an upper-hand over these people. They could use them as bargaining chips, they could use them to get away without a scratch, and here Pate was, telling him to release such tools for survival.

Pate did not bother to say it again when Roman did nothing, deciding to cut the tether with his spear, causing the mastermind to step back, still in shock, and now feeling chagrin. The spearman moved on to kick Blake and Sun forward, prompting the four boys to move forward cautiously, not taking their eyes off of Pate nor Roman while reaching out to grab their fellow injured students. Cardin ended up with holding Blake up by her shoulder, Sky and Dove both got Sun; Russel still maintained eye contact with the two criminals as the handing-over took place.

When was all said and done, the boys looked over to their leader; "Go, now." And they did so, heading into a direction away from the three men, and away from where the firefight was taking place as well, hurrying to wherever, Pate did not know. He looked over to Roman, still seething with irritation at what Pate had done.

"Roman, leave us?"

Th mastermind shot back from where the students went to over the spearman, now even more befuddled than ever. "Just do it, this is no fight for you, we will meet again soon." He was unsure about that, but being offered the chance to run was too good for him to turn down. So he nodded, turning tail and running over into and entirely different direction, keeping himself away from the firefight and students who left, leaving behind two now.

Pate looked back at Creighton, who this whole time had not averted his glare at his old partner, still glowering ever more; he could only imagine how the rest of his face looked beneath that mask.

"How did you find me?" Creighton did not answer, he just stayed silent, earning a shake of his head. "Oh Creighton, I guess it doesn't matter now really. Everything we had doesn't matter now."

"You threw that away."

"Hmm, that is debatable, old man."

"I don't give a shit if it is or not; I'm going to kill you for what you did."

"Oh Creighton, it's so typical of you, not even bothering to ask why I did it. You just kill first, ask questions later."

"It saves me the trouble."

"Pfft, how you haven't died yet is beyond me."

"You know how hard it is to kill me. Even Astor tried to pull it off a week ago, just to avenges his kids, but that bastard failed."

"Astor? How is he doing?"

"Dead now, just like you'll fucking be."

"Hmph, you used to be a bit sane once, now you're just a monster."

"I was **always** a monster, we're both monsters. We were born monsters, and we'll die monsters, whether you like it or not. It's what fate determined for us, and we can't do a damn thing about it."

"... You don't know that."

"Gah, you're just as childish as ever. I do know that!"

"Well I'm going to prove you wrong then!"

"Not before I have what's mine!"

Creighton charged ferociously, taking Pate off guard as he wrapped his arms around the criminal's body. He did not release his weapons though, instead, the knight just pushed onto Pate's backside, forcing him up against the old man, who at this stage let out an impressive surge of aura, letting dark blue flow around him as Pate started to struggle against the brutal bear hug, still managing to hold onto his greatshield and spear. When it proved fruitless, Pate started to build up a storm of his own aura, fighting against Creighton's indigo with his burnt-orange.

He charged forward, still holding onto the spearman as the two rammed right through one of the Schnee Company containers, one filled with fiery-red, raw dust.

They were enveloped by the explosion, absolutely destroying the whole container, creating a chain-reaction Creighton had not plan on releasing; he simply did not know that the company would be transporting raw dust in these containers. All of the containers around them exploded, then those that were next to them exploded, the ones next to those exploded as well, even the ones near the firefight went up in a light show, completely devastating both warring sides.

As for them, Mild-Mannered Pate and Creighton the Wanderer, it all just felt like they were being scorched alive by fire, by ice numbing them soon after, then lighting filling them throughout, all the while a powerful gust blew them around, tossing the two outlaws as ragdolls; it was a storm of elements beating the pulp out of both of them, with their aura being pushed way over their limits as it all came to an end.

They landed on a rooftop of one of the cargo holds, half torn-up by the maelstrom of volatile dust, splintering up metal and rails up into the air. The men rolled with little life, Pate stopping near the edge, and Creighton going still a few meters away from his old partner. Bits of their armor were blackened by heat, some pieces ripped off, bodies battered to death; Pate had with him a broken nose, profusely spewing blood out of his nostrils, while Creighton got it worse.

The man landed with his leg and femur being pierced by a metal bar that stuck out, again, thanks to Creighton himself. The piece of metal broke through flesh, muscle, and bone, effectively holding back the man when he tried to crawl forward for his weapons, only to gravelly moan when feeling the pain of being restraint. He looked back to see the piece of metal through his leg.

Then small laughter pulled his suffering away from that, looking back for his weapons were, seeing further away Pate, lumbering back up on his feet, grinning with blood staining his teeth, while everything else that did and would ever exist, fell deathly-silent.

"Look at what you did, Creighton. So much destruction," he took a step forward, picking up his spear, "this is only what you're good at really." Another step, this time grabbing his greatshield; "Well, naturally at least. You always had a knack for manipulating the kids these days." Creighton started to struggle this time, only to again find out how stupid it is to do that when his leg had a metal bar jammed through it.

But what? Should he just lay there, and let Pate do whatever it is he plans on doing?

"Though, children these days are becoming stupider with every day passing by."

He cannot each his weapons from here; the smile on Pate's face went away.

"Do you want to know why I did it, Creighton?"

He gave a stuttering sigh, feeling himself getting a bit colder; "What?"

"It's not because I hated you... and believe it or not..."

Creighton watched his silently kneel down with him, surprisingly for both of them, Pate found himself having somewhat of a difficult time with looking his old partner in the eye.

"... You... you were always there with me, from the war with Atlas, to... now. You were there with me, making sure I didn't..." Creighton felt his gut tie in a knot of uncertainty when seeing a barely-nonexistent tear form, "... didn't suffer alone..."

"..."

"... I left you... I left you there because I found a way to fix this, fix all of this..."

"..."

"... I couldn't take you with me... and I know you hate me for it."

"And I'll never forgive you either." To Pate, it stung, weakly, yet it was a miracle whenever he felt words hurt him; a bullhead could be heard around them. "I took you in, I guided you through this Hell, and you sold me out; I was going to die in Mirrah."

"But you escaped, I knew you would-"

"-It's doesn't **fucking** matter! You left me to rot and be executed, just for what? A solution for all of this? What the hell is it anyways?! TELL ME!" Pate flinched, walking back into a spotlight from the wandering bullhead. Before he knew what it even was however, a rope ladder was tossed down in front of the spearman.

"Hey down there!" It was Roman, almost being drowned out from the turbines blasting. "Climb up! We're getting out of here!" Pate stared upwards for a few seconds, before turning back down at his old friend, only glowering with his single cobalt eye; how did Pate not notice that? "Come on! Let's go- NOW!"

"... Don't worry, I'm going to fix this."

"Don't you fucking go- COME BACK HERE!" Pate climbed up onto the rope ladder, prompting the bullhead to take off into the night sky. "DON'T YOU FUCKING LEAVE ME AGAIN! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" It's turbine were hushed the farther it went, leaving Creighton alone in utter silence, violently breathing, trying to crawl forward again, similar to last time.

"I'll..." He let his head fall with a bang, still breathing like he ran a mile and took no stop. Creighton stared blankly at the sea before him, reflecting the stars that shined tonight, and the flames that roared on the ports. The rage was simmering down in synchronization with every wave he saw crashing against the boats, with it now chillier; his mouth was getting a bit dry as well. "I'll..."

"There he is!"

"Creighton!"

* * *

"Monty, what a day."

"Yes... yes... But, I'm afraid this day has yet to end though, Roman." Pate stated, looking back at the mastermind from the entrance of the warehouse. "I still need your piece."

"Yeah, yeah, let me just... catch my breath..."

"How very disappointing, Roman." The new presence startled both of the criminals, with Pate visibly preparing to fight back against the woman who was foolish enough to approach them.

"Whoa! Pate, calm down!-"

"-Who are you?" The man demanded, scowling at the fiery gaze of orange eyes in the darkness, sensing the dominating aura of hers, only to comeback with his. "It makes no difference if you answer me, I'm afraid this is where you perish."

"PATE! STOP! She's an ally of mine!" Roman was almost too late with stopping the spearman, being incredibly grateful that Pate listened and complied, though still ready to kill her if she makes the slightest hint of posing a threat to him or Roman. "What the hell do you want?" The woman was tempted to scorch Roman for sounding mildly irritated by her presence, to punish him for treating her like a nuisance, but she did not.

"We were expecting... _more_ from you."

"Hey! You were the ones who suggested with those stupid mutts from the White Fang!"

She chuckled, in a manner similar to Creighton would titter. "And you will continue to do so.-"

"-Actually," Pate took a few steps close to the woman in the darkness, "he will not. He and I made an agreement to seek something greater than working with common terrorists like you." He gave her a shit-eating grin, further agitating the woman with his bravery to tell her that she is not getting what she wants.

"So this is Mild-Mannered Pate?" Her mentioning his own alias to him did not deter the man from approaching her any further, in fact he took another step towards her after she said his name; he was willing to admit that he held a reputation in the underworld. "I was expecting someone-"

"- A bit more impressive? Really original, darling." He could not tell, but she was flushing at this point, actually embarrassed and absolutely pissed with his audacity to insult her, to assume she was as predicable as he believed. "I'm going to tell you this, sweetiepie: just leave. Roman is not yours to boss around, he is a professional mastermind, with years of experience under his belt. He deserves to work alongside someone who respects him for his accomplishments, for his hard work, not a **bitch** like you. So I suggest you turn around and go find someone else, because Roman and I are working together now."

"... Actually," Pate grimaced, refusing to believe what he was suspecting Roman to say, "Pate, I'm afraid I'll have to work with... _her._ As much as I want to find the treasure you're seeking, I'm afraid it's just too much of a risk." The spearman turned around, right in time to see Roman pull a small, wool sack, containing a gem that glowed purple through the holes. "But here, take it, as thanks for saving me back there, even if you caused some of the trouble yourself."

It was a slight disappointment for Pate, albeit he can still find the third one by himself, he was kind of hoping for someone to come along with him; he wasn't used to how lonely it was to work without anyone else by his side. But Pate guessed this was better, since it meant he would not have to worry about anyone betraying and trying to kill him at the end.

He held his hand out for Roman to drop the object onto, with Pate grabbing old, and putting into one of his pouches, nodding; "Thank you, Roman Torchwick, good luck with... whatever it is _**she**_ wants."

"Good luck to you too, Mild-Mannered Pate." He nodded again, walking pass Roman, exiting out the warehouse, heading for his third destination, as the mastermind, woman, and two more watched him leave into darkness outside, without light to shine.

"... He's going to be trouble if he get the third piece, Roman, I hope you know that."

"Now don't worry, it's just an urban legend..."

"..."

"... I hope..."

"... I'll fix all of it, I promise you..."

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** ** _Now even though I made this now only a crossover between two series, I still wanted to just add Dan the Security Man into this as a cameo. And I promise, he will be the only cameo from another series other that RWBY and Dark Souls to appear in this fanfiction.  
_**

 ** _See you later._**


	10. Chapter 10

**_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, they belong to their respectful owners._**

* * *

 _"What are we dealing with here?"_

 _"Two humans, possibly knights from Mirrah..."_

 _"... That's it?"_

 _"Yes sir, that's... they're what did this to our men."_

 _"Are you shitting me soldier?! These men and women were in a bullhead! A BULLHEAD! How can two knights do this to them?!"_

 _"S-Sir, I... I just don't know. We kept on firing at them, o-our weapons didn't do a damn thing to their armor! One of them threw his spear at the bullhead, and it just... just exploded! It scorched the hull worst than dust would!"_

 _"Fuck... what's the status on those reinforcements?!"_

 _"Sir, Ironwood says they'll be here in approximately ten minutes."_

 _"Shit... damn it- alright men! I want all of you arm all_ _the barrels of fire dust we have with explosives, we'll lay them in cart eight, and set them off when those... those Mirrahns arrive."_

 _"Sir! We can't! Those barrels are the transport! Mr. Schnee will be furious-"_

 _"-Fuck Schnee! I'm not about to let the rest of my soldiers be massacred by monsters, while we have more dust than anyone would know what to do with! Understand?!"_

 _"What if they don't work?! What if they keep on going?!"_

 _"... Good point, soldier, bring me **all** the barrels of dust we have. If they were able to take down our spartans like flies, then they sure as hell not going to be stopped by just fire dust! UNDERSTAND?!"_

 _"But-but Mr. Schnee will absolutely be furi -"_

 _"-WHAT DID I JUST SAY ABOUT MR. SCHNEE, SOLDIER?! FUCK THAT OLD MAN! AND FUCK THIS TRANSPORT! If those two men, knight, bastards of Mirrah get hold of all this dust, then there's no telling how much destruction they'll bring with it! This way, if... if they're not killed by the explosion, then at least they won't get their dust. Understand?"_

 _"..."_

 _" **WHAT DID I JUST SAY SOLDIER?! ANSWER ME NOW!** "_

 _"SIR, YES SIR!"_

 _"Then get me those fucking barrels! MOVE YOUR ASSES NOW!"_

* * *

"Creighton. _"  
_

He winced his ragged eyelids, turning over in his bed, not bothering to open his eye.

"Creighton, we don't have time for your shit, get up."

"Fuck you Cardin, I'm an old man, I was caught in a dust explosion last night, and my leg was pierced through by a metal rod."

"You look good now, so get the fuck up."

"Go to hell, who are you to think I'm okay?"

"... Are you okay now? Is your leg healed up?" Sky's questions made him wince twice as hard.

"... Yeah..."

"See? Now get up Cray, it's time for breakfast."

" _Fine._ " Creighton groaned as his back cracked, sitting up in his bed, rubbing his eye. He found himself being unable to open his eye, all because of eye crust having built-up during his sleep to such an immense level that the Wanderer felt like his eye was glued shut. "Shit."

"Wha... ugh, disgusting."

"Fucking- help me Dove."

"The hell do you want me to do?"

"Anything! Just get my eye opened!"

"Just force it open yourself!"

"But it hurts."

"... Creighton, you had a shoulder dislocated during a spar, popped it back in its socket, and proceeded with the spar- which you won, by the way; don't complain to me that _this,"_ Russel poked his leader's closed eye, dangerously testing Creighton's mentality, "not only that, but remember what happened to you just **_eight hours_** ago? Don't tell us that hurts more than what went down at the docks."

The criminal sighed, uncomfortably forcing his eyelids to part way, popping off some of the crust onto the Winchester's face, who winced as it made contact, mildly disgusted by his leader's filth, while Creighton noticed and chuckled, along with the rest of his team.

"You're disgusting, Creighton." Cardin said in what was a hybrid of a grumble and a growl, as his leader finished off his chortling with, breathing a shaken breath, drifting his eye down, just down, not at anything specific. He was just looking around the general area of his blanket covered feet; his small smile turned into a small frown.

"..."

Cardin stared, now frowning too, not because of the eye crust but, no, it was Creighton. The man was obviously glum, or bitter, the Winchester always has somewhat of a hard time telling how Creighton was feeling whenever his face scrunched up negatively, but what it was that troubled him, the boy could guess.

"... So that was... Mild-Mannered Pate?" He could see the man's rugged fingers twitch slightly.

"... Yeah, that... that was Pate."

"... And he... got away?" Lark felt stupid from seeing his leader's face harden even further, turning from potential sadness to fury being restrained by only a thin cord, all because of a stupid question.

"Yes..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... I was so, _so,_ _ **so**_ fucking close. We both could have died in there, and should have, yet that fucker..."

 _'I'm going to fix this._ _'_ He shook his head, dismissing it as Pate toying with his emotions and mentality.

"He got away, left me up there in the aftermath, flying off for Gods know where." He grasped his bed sheets subtly, but with unnecessary strength. "I should have just torn my leg off, I should have just..." He fell back into his pillow, staring at the smooth white ceiling, his thin lips stretching over his face in a small frown, making his laugh lines more noticeable. "... Leave me, I want some time for myself." _ **  
**_

Cardin, Dove, Russel, Sky, they all knew better than to ask why, or tell him again to just come with them now. So they left the room, with the halberdier closing the door behind him, leaving their leader alone in a room with a low, quiet buzzing, but was being barely heard by the knight. He still lied there, not bothering to look at the window next to him, or anywhere else in the room for that matter. Creighton just lied there, letting time go by, feeling his throat, stomach, and head tighten with anger, his brow furrowing until his eye was forced shut.

He snapped, screaming all that fury out, thrashing about his clenching fists, absolutely writhing, knocking medical machinery near him, crippling his sheets, grabbing his greying hair, pulling until chunks let loose. His blood rushing through his veins, his vessels, it all simmered down eventually, making a worn out Creighton as the result, tempting him to go back to sleep, which he complied to...

* * *

"Where is Creighton?"

"He wants to be alone for a bit." Russel answered, sitting down with his team across from Lothric, Lorian, Karla, and Yuria.

"I see, has he recovered as well?"

"Yeah."

"Good, Good..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... So, the four you saw him?" Karla questioned; "the so called _Mild-Mannered Pate_."

"Yes," Cardin replied, "we saw him."

"And?"

"And... I don't... I don't know. He was just... an average looking man, with a huge-ass shield and spear. He had no scars, he did not look like a lunatic, his voice was nice like Creighton said, he looked like a man you could trust."

"But remember what Creighton said about him."

"Yeah, yeah, he's deceiving, he's just the worst thing to literally happen on Remnant, like he said." The mace wielder brought up, sounding like he did not take Pate to be a serious threat; it did not go unnoticed either.

"The fuck, Cardin?"

"What, Dove?"

"You sound like it's not that big of a deal."

"So?"

" _So?_ You're not worried about that maniac roaming around Vale? Potentially working with the White Fang or some other terrorist group? If Creighton is worried about him, then you should fucking be too."

"Ugh, Dove," the Winchester sighed, shaking his head with shut eyes, "yeah, I'm not okay with Pate, that guy, running around. But the fuck is he gonna do? Attack Beacon? Level a whole continent? Bring down a government? He's just like Creighton: one guy, who's just as powerful as he is crazy, but is out there by himself. Even if he side with those Fangs for Monty-knows what, he won't be able to do much."

"... Yeah, yeah," Russel came in, "the White Fang... they're- they're pretty big, they got that? They have members all over Remnant, in the axis or primeval kingdoms, they're pretty dangerous on their own, and also, they got some tough guys with them. But even if that Pate joins them- which I'm sure he won't, because why the hell would he?-"

"-Money-"

"-Shut up Sky."

"Well it's a possibility!"

"Yeah, but... even if he works with them... I don't know. Like Cardin, I'm not worried for my life, or anyone's to be honest.-"

"-Wow, you really care about us, don't you?-"

"-Sky, seriously!"

"Well then why the fuck aren't you scared about this then?"

"Cause we got Creighton!"

The halberdier opened his mouth, though was silent for a second or two, before speaking; "Russel... that... that's not a great reason."

"But it's the **reason** I'm not giving a shit about this. As long as Creighton's here, as long as he's with us if we ever run into Pate, then we're golden. We could have gotten that asshole if it wasn't for Sun and Blake, but next time, they won't be there if we find him."

"... And what if Creighton is absent when you boys cross paths with Pate?" The look Yuria got was almost a grimace in her point of view, again being reminded by how she annoys Russel sometimes.

"We'll just see what happens then."

"Fuck, you would be the most unstable one here if we didn't have Creighton. Does that ever come to mind?"

Thrush smirked at Dove; "I don't know, does the thought of not eating the amount of junk food you eat every week may improve your physical fitness?"

"..."

Dove proceeded to clock Russel in the face, with Yuria smiling in approval.

* * *

"He's asleep, we should come back later."

"Ruby... we can just wake him up right now. It's not like he's busy with anything."

"I know, I know... I just don't think it's a good idea to wake him up."

"I don't think this is a good idea at all."

"Quiet, if you're all uncomfortable with this, then you can wait outside."

"That's even worst, Blake."

The girl shook her head, still looking at the slumbering man in the bed of tussled sheets and blankets, with equipment around him have been knocked over. Creighton was looking much, much better than he was a few hours ago, sleeping soundly like a baby, thinking -somewhat enviously- for the whole time that took place between the explosion and now. Blake herself was actually unable to sleep for quite sometime, having suffered a concussion from Pate's kick, while Creighton was lightly breathing through his mouth asleep after having survived an explosion of dust so severe that it leveled a quarter of Vale city's ports.

"One of us has to wake him up." Yang brought up, arms crossed, slightly scowling at the criminal knight. "And Ruby's not doing it."

"Ye- wait, what? Why can't I-"

"-He could hurt you if you wake him up; I'm not going to risk your safety for what we're doing."

"Which we shouldn't be doing in the first place," Weiss butted in, "I'm positive he's not going to want to talk about what Pate said to Blake, he might not even want to talk about it with his team."

"I don't give a shit, I'm still doing this." The cat faunus shot at the Schnee girl, again not looking away from the sleeping man, who miraculously had not woken up since they-

"-Normally, I'd be excited about having four young women like all of you to myself in a room alone," all of RWBY, even Blake, could feel their blood dwindling in warmth from hearing the gravelly tone of the Wanderer, who's facial features remained calm, his eye still closed, "but if you're all here to talk about this, then fuck off." He turned on his side, placing his hands beneath his head.

"... Not until you tell me what Pate meant by that."

"By what? The fuck are you talking about, _pussy?_ " An insult like that would usually have no effect on Blake, but in this situation, where Creighton and his whole team knows about her secret, and he was making fun of her for it, barely, just barely, made her heat up with a weak, nagging-desire to punch Creighton.

"About what you did."

"To cat faunus?"

"To everyone." A couple seconds of silence passed, with Creighton not moving his body at all, save for his lips.

"Go fuck yourself."

"Not too long ago, when we were attacked by those gyrm, I started to think, _'Why would he want you to live while killing us instead?'_ He should have just killed you as well."

"..."

"I thought you must of done something to him to make such an abnormal decision, I thought you may have hurt him in the past somehow. But... I just shrugged it off in the end, being a bit happy for all of us surviving. There was no room for me to think of it."

"..."

"But last night... when Pate was about to kill me, he told me some unflattering... things, about you. About you doing Monty-knows what to cat faunus like me."

"..."

"I'm beginning to think you lied to us on that day you came."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... Is this the thanks I get for saving your ass? More questions about my life? You accusing me of heinous crimes?"

"I'm not accusing-"

"-You're **fucking** thinking about it." He turned back into his original position, with his cobalt eye opened, grimacing with tamed ire, glaring at every one of them. "You're all thinking I've done some shit in my life before getting here. Probably having killed people, trafficking drugs, defiling sacred ground for treasure, rape, framing people for crimes they didn't commit, you're all thinking about shit like that though, I know it."

"... Creighton, we-"

"-Shut, up, you _**cunt**_." He noticed Yang clenching her closed hands, clearly offended by his name-calling of her little sister; he refrained from egging the blond on however.

"You want to know what Pate meant? Fine. He was talking about shit I've done in the war, the one between Mirrah and Atlas, twenty, twenty-five years ago, I forgot how long it's been. But what I did... I could give you all my years in their without missing any detail. But what Pate was talking about..."

Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake, they were bracing for the graphic details that could follow. They watched as his eyes trailed to his feet, or the edge of his bed, they could not tell where he was looking.

"... We captured a specialist, a female cat faunus. We beated the hell out of her just for information, snapped her left arm in half, cut off some of her fingers, I even ended up cutting off her tail and force-fed it to her. She was a total mess in the end of it all, but she still didn't budge..."

"..."

"... So, I gave her one last chance. I told her that if she didn't tell us what we wanted to hear, I would let every one last of my men have their way with her, one at a time, every day, until she told us everything. And you know what she did? She ended up spitting out some of her blood onto me."

They could all feel disgust, and fury in the faunus, beginning to build and build, all now knowing what was going to happen next. It was enough for Ruby to speak out.

"Don't... don't say anything else... I think we all know where you're getting at." The veteran nodded solemnly, deciding to do what she said; he was not in the mood to talk about it anyhow.

"Yes... we got what we wanted in the end. It was just another day of war in Mirrah, it's was those kind of days where we, the knights, the soldier, those who defended Mirrah, were basically encouraged to do whatever we wanted to the enemy, to our prisoners of their own army. And I sure as hell enjoyed that. We all did. We all did whatever it took to win the wars."

No one of RWBY said anything, they just stood still, feeling heavy with repulse, one with that and ire. Yet they all heard stories of Mirrahn forces doing such vile crimes against their enemies, doing so much to get information out of them, the army of the kingdom could be considered the most sinister of all of humanity to you if your land is their enemy, whereas they treat their allies with the finest respect, superior than any other army out there in Remnant; it was a bipolar army. It was not as surprising as it should be, since this story took place in one of Mirrah's many wars.

"Pate could have told you everything he and I have done, in _and_ out of the wars. But he just had no time to do so..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... Thank you, Creighton..."

"... I don't want all of you to think I'm still like that though, because I'm not. It was the me who was tired, who was pissed at all these kingdoms attacking us everyday, terrorizing us." He finally looked back up at them; "And Atlas, they took the only ones who were precious to me at the time, the only ones I had left by then, and I can't get them back," he once told this to CCRDL, "so I started taking as much as I could from them, playing with them before disposing of them..."

"..."

"... But I'm not like that anymore. I'm just an old man, tired, I still miss all of them though. Now all I want is Pate, and that's it. So don't worry about me terrorizing your little sister," he said to Yang, "or me going after any of your family," to Weiss, "or you for you being a faunus," to Blake, "I don't think I have that kind of a monster in me anymore." It was one the few things Creighton had ever said that he was uncertain about. "... Is there anything else you four want to say?" All still stayed quiet, but gently shook their heads, getting Creighton nod in response.

"Good, good... And, I would... I would appreciate it if none of you shared this with JNPR, or anyone else, and I guarantee the team and I won't tell anyone about Blake being a faunus, okay?"

"Okay." Blake responded, with Ruby, Weiss, and Yang nodding once more, prompting him to nod as well.

"Good woman, now leave, I still need to sleep." He lowered his upper body back to the comfort of his bed, actually starting to think about leaving right now, though he will wait for RWBY to leave first though.

"... And... thank you for saving Sun and I back there." He waved Blake off.

"Thank those four boys instead, it was their idea to save you two..."

* * *

 _ **Sorry for this chapter being shorter than usual, I just couldn't think of any other way to progress the story in this chapter after this point.  
**_

 _ **Until next time.**_


	11. Chapter 11

**_DISCLAIMER:_** ** _I do not own anything from the Dark Souls trilogy or RWBY series, they belong to their respectful owners._**

* * *

"Father, please, we must do this."

"No, no- do you know what will become of us if we do this?"

"It is what **will** happen to us if we continue to stay here in this condition."

"That is why we must stay here, more of us will come to strengthen the tribe-"

"-But when? WHEN?! If as long as we stay here, as long as we remain as such as this, the grimm will surely kill us in their next few arrivals. It can happen at any time while we wait for more to come, and we will all be slain by all of them. That is why we must leave for the tribe in the Forest of Blood."

"And if we do leave, we will still be in danger from the grimm, the humans, the undead, that man in the mask of steel- he nearly killed you, didn't he? We have just as much as a chance to die out there as you say we do if we say here in Emerald. And what will we do if we managed to reach the Forest of Blood, only to find that the tribe is gone, either dead, or have left their settlement. We could have lost our own, and it would all be for nothing."

"They could not come either, do you know that? More of our kind may never come to us by the time we meet the grimm once more."

"... That may happen as well."

"Then why do we stay? If you know this will happen, then why do we stay?"

"ENOUGH!"

"NO!-"

A swift strike by claw knocked him down, officially ripping apart a barely-existing family.

"I will not tolerate such insubordination from my son!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... If you wish to leave, then do so; I will not stop you. And may you take that foul beast with you."

"... Fine. Die here with what few of us remain, father. But despite what you and I do today, know so that when we reach our destination, I will honor all of those who fall here. This world shall be bifurcated by my axe, and with what remains, I will rebuild into a home for all of us to rule..."

* * *

Something small landed into his agape, what it was, Creighton did not know, but he was able to guess that it was not a hand or fist, since he would feel fingers if it was that.

The middle aged man opened his eyes to the interior of the dining hall, sitting next his team, with Russel by his side, and LLKY across from them. It was apparent that they did not see what hit him on the cranium, too occupied with eating and conversing among each other.

Creighton reached into his mouth, finding that someone had thrown, and managed, to a get a purple grape into his mouth. It was somewhat impressing to him, that someone could make a shot like this, but it still bothered him. The middle aged man looked back up at his surrounding, searching for whoever it was that threw this fruit at him; it was not difficult either.

It was easy to spot her, the bubbly Nora, giggling like the baby Creighton perceives her to be, clearly proud of her accomplishment, with her team and three of RWBY- Blake was not looking- all wearing mixed expressions. Jaune, Pyrrha, Weiss, Ren, and Ruby looking worried about what would happen next, while Yang and of course, Nora, finding it funny.

He has no qualms with her, even if she has thrice threatened to break the legs of his teammates. To the criminal knight, they were big talk coming from a six-year old acting big and tough, it was amusing to him, she was amusing to him, and this, throwing an apple to him, was amusing to him. It was nice knowing someone for once who was ninety-nine percent of the time positive, but it wore thin on him sometimes, like now.

So he put the grape back in his mouth, starting to chew on it until it became nothing but sweet mush while he got out from his seat, being noticed by a few of his friends, keeping a calm composure. As he wandered over to JNPR, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Lie grew more worrisome, while on Nora's part, she was just give him an all-too friendly smile for his liking.

He reached the table, placing both of his palms on the table, next to Valkyrie's tray, still chewing on his grape. "You know, I could have choked on that in my sleep and died."

And her response: "And you know, it's rude to talk while eating." Creighton, feeling his throat tighten, becoming more annoyed by her mocking nature, but only nodding in reaction.

"Okay." He proceeded to take Jaune's cup of water, spat out the mush into it, and doused him with it, completely taking everyone - now including the rest of CCRDL, and all of LLKY- by surprise for attacking him instead of the bubbly girl.

"What the hell, Creighton?"

He ignored the baffled, and now infuriated blond, looking back down Nora; "Next, that'll be you."

"Then why wasn't it her this time?!"

"You're the leader Jaune, you have to take responsibility for you teammate's actions, just like the rest of us." The Wanderer turned heel after giving his explanation, walking up until when he was half-way to his table when he stopped, feeling another foodstuff, possibly a pie, hit the back of his head, giving off a sweet scent with the clattering of a tin smacking the ground. He could see the rest of his team, and LLKY, become shock and awe at whatever they saw.

He brush the hair of the back of his head, feeling a sticky, semi-soft substance among the salt-and-pepper follicles. Creighton proceeded to turn back, glaring over at at JNPR and RWBY, all- save for Nora- now looking just like his friends, except to an even stronger degree, while the culprit was stifling back her giggles this time.

The old veteran started to scratch the stubble on his cheeks, wondering how to deal with this, thinking how he can just utterly destroy her without any being punished. A proper punch would be enough for him, but for her? Creighton was sure that socking her in the face would become the catalyst for an ugly bout, which to him, he would win. And of course, he'd have to scorned by a man who is probably half his age, Creighton did not want that.

There was also the option to verbally assault her until she broke down, but the criminal was also sure she did not have a sane-enough mentality for that to work. He knew he could spar her, that was an option Goodwitch suggested to every fresh student on the first day at Beacon; if there is any disagreement or between two students or more, then they must settle it in a spar, rather than fight it out of jurisdiction and observation.

But this was not good enough of heat for him to be that mad. For one of the rarest of moments in his life, Creighton was disappointed that walking away may just be the best option.

So he did it, walking over to his table just to say: "Watch my belongings while I clean myself." Unfortunately, he found that there was even a consequence of doing this as well.

"Aw, _weaving so soon?_ "

"Nora!"

"Come on Creighton! That's not you! That's not like you at all!"

"Nora, please stop before he does something." She, both Pyrrha and Nora were right. If that girl keeps all of this up, then Creighton will find himself- and he believes this himself- that he will do something morbidly atrocious to her, no matter what the punishment for doing so is. And of course, this is not Creighton at all, to just walk away from a fight. Yet there he was not willing to fight her with these conditions.

But his eye, the spirit of battle took control of it, forcing it to look over at a bowl of soup at his table, next to it a bottle of hot sauce. He had no idea who's it was, where it came from, or if the rumors of it burning to the touch are true, but in terms of how much trouble he would get into if he started a fight of this breed, then it would be worth it to find out.

He pulled the cap off, and poured all of it into the soup, with his friends watching, almost grasping are what Creighton might be planning, yet not being able due to his unpredictability. Along with that, it stirred some anxiety as well.

"Creeeighton.-"

"-Quiet Sky, I'm working here."

"What are you going to do?" The last drop pounded against more liquid, in turn causing Creighton look up at his young acquaintances, seeing the mild-nervousness in their eyes.

"Don't worry, it won't be anything serious."

"... Will it?"

His answer to Cardin's question was picking up the bowl of soup, turning back around at JNPR, and throwing the bowl in the direction of Nora. Though, due to the effort of her ducking, along with Lie and Pyrrha, and the fact that Creighton had bad aim, the bowl instead struck Jaune, bouncing off his head, spilling it contents all over his face and chest. There an audible reaction of agony from the Arc boy, but whether it was from the hot sauce or from the force he put in that throw being released upon the blond's head, he did not know.

What he did though, is that everyone, everyone in the dining hall, saw what he did. The whole interior went quiet, looking shocked by what he had done, ;like it was the worse thing he could ever do to Jaune- which was just not the truth, and Creighton hoped they knew that, because if they did not, then he would begin to worry for this generation's intelligence as a majority, barely at least; the dumber they are, the easier it will be for him to do whatever he pleases and kill those- this generation- who say otherwise.

"... My bad, that was meant for Nora." Jaune's answer to that was more groaning. "... Okay, I'll be going now.-"

"-No!" Ruby yelled, now making Creighton groan from the pain of thinking _"what now?"_ "We will not let you get away with such injustice."

He just had a thousand-yard stare at this point, looking over at the small girl, almost wanting to chuckle at the notion of her in general, but not finding the energy of wanting to do so; there was a reason why he was sleeping during lunch, and with Nora taking that away from him, his attempt to recover some stamina was for nothing. He almost just wanted to respond with Ruby's need for justice with a spar, and lose on purpose, just so he can go back to sleep.

"Okay, fine. You, me, the... place- whatever it is where we spar." She grimaced.

"I... wait, wh-"

"-You heard, we're going to fight this out."

"But-"

"-But what? Did you want to bring justice with some childish tactics, like a food fight instead? Was that what you had in mind?" Ruby's cheeks turned as red as one. "... You're patethic... sorry, I meant pathetic. Still, we're doing this in combat class." Right as he said that, the bell rang, signaling it was time for said class, which gave him the energy to chuckle now.

He adorned his mask, grabbed his weapons, and took off into the crowd of students, not even slowing down for his teammates and friends to catch up.

But they managed.

"What the fuck, Creighton?" At this point, Creighton found telling his acquaintances to watch their mouths not to be amusing as it once was. "Why would you do that?!"

"They started it." Was his reply to Russel.

"Fucking- you're forty-five years old, man! Why can't you just be like all other adults!"

"And tell me, Dove, what do you mean by that?"

"I mean... just... you're so immature for a grown-ass man. You're suppose to be mature, a good role-model, not some psycho that throws soup filled with hot sauce at a teenager!" His leader shielded his eye from the blinding sun as they left the inside of the building, which in turn further agitated Bronzewing, making him believe the criminal was not caring about this at all.

"Well, shit, I don't of what to tell you other than this: I'm the fate of what a majority of Mirrahn soldier become after they finish up with a war. This is how they are when they integrate with society: dysfunctional, irritable _and_ irritating, prone to violence, irrational thinking, callous, develop... what is it, _PBSD?_ That... mental disorder soldiers get after coming home from a war?"

"Post traumatic stress disorder." Karla answered.

"Yes, that. We just get some of these when we come home. Obviously I don't have PTSD... I think. But the rest of what I said is what I have; it is what I am. So there you go: the reasons for me stooping to Nora's level."

No one said a word after that, they just continued to follow Creighton, with the sound of Lorian dragging his gargantuan frame over the Beacon campus being the only dominant noise instead, along with the chatter of other students passing by. What came out of his mouth was void of that sarcastic tone of his, being replaced with the one he wears when in a sullen mood. Everyone felt the need to stop in turn, so that a severe consequence does not come as the result of this.

They entered the amphitheater, and the first thing Creighton did was split off from the group, searching for Goodwitch among the students. He spotted her just as soon as he left his friends, clearly seeing her occupied with her scroll. What she was doing, Creighton could not give a shit. A minuscule voice in his head did bring up the idea of just blowing this all off and go up to the seats, just to sleep and pray to the gods that she does not call him up for a spar. But another voice did bring up the thought _'Would Ruby let this go_ _?'_ Or anyone for that matter.

Jaune's reaction- now that Creighton recalls it- did seem genuinely painful, or irritated at least. But there is still no way the blond, or even any of his own friends, would let it go, and more specifically, Ruby would not let it go; that is what Creighton thought. Albeit he has seen moments where Ruby displayed a sense of maturity, even thinking she may demonstrated it more often than him after his first war, the girl has just like him, shown more immaturity however.

Yet he did remember how frightened she looked when he brought up the idea of them sparring to settle this. The more he thought about it, the more he started to think that Ruby wanted no part in this. And the more he thought about that, the more he thought about not doing this. If she wanted no spar, then good, it meant to him that he can just forget all of this and sleep through this class. Yet there was still the possibility that another member of RWBY, or JNPR, or Jaune himself, may be called up to a spar, and choose him as their opponent.

He thought _'whatever'_ though, and decided not to go through with this. He turned away from the professor's direction, making his way back to wherever it was his friends had sat themselves at. Of course it was easy since it was hard to not notice the giant Lorian; where he was, Creighton's allies in Beacon were most likely with him.

CCRDL's leader made his way towards them, sluggishly, going up stairs while being bumped into by other students, one almost knocking him over. He was too tired to call them out on that, or even to glare at them, Creighton just kept on going, eventually plomping himself down next to Russel, closing his eye right after he did so.

"So, you got the spar?"

"No, I didn't even ask Goodwitch to make it happen. I'm too tired to do it; I'm just going to let this all slide." Creighton replied, closing his eyes and resting his chin on the palms of his hands.

"Well good job man, that's great. You're making good progress."

"Yes, thou has vastly improved since the day you arrived."

"We should go out celebrate tonight, Cray."

"And mark this in stone for the future to come." Lorian gave what sounded like a grunt of approval for his little brother's idea.

Creighton weakly growled in annoyance from the mocking banter all around him, growing more so when the bell blasted through all of Beacon, only to be followed with the majority of the other students in the amphitheater not quieting down. But he was sure that they would do so when Goodwitch spoke up, which happened of course.

"Quiet down students." And they did as they were told, somewhat. They still communicated to one another in hushed voices, which was acceptable to the professor, and was more irritating to Creighton, causing him to wince in response to their whispering. His friends have stopped speaking altogether though, that was something he found to be grateful for.

"... Creighton," his eyelids broke open, immediately scowling at the ceiling of the amphitheater while everyone else officially went silent; he wanted to believe this was not about to happen, "you will begin today's sparring sessions, please come down." He could hear Cardin and Sky give a light "tsk" at this unfortunate turn of events, while seeing Dove , Russel, and Karla shake their heads as well.

He could not say no to this, unless he had a satisfying reason, and being tired is not that at all. Though he did not really know that, Creighton does not remember anyone else having requested for Goodwitch to excuse them for being exhausted because no one has ever said that was their reason. But he did not take the chance to see if it was.

"Fine." He rubbed his eye before getting up, proceeding to pick his weapons up, getting a quick good-luck pat on the back from Russel, and heading down the steps, only to find himself tripping over nothing but himself. "SHIT!"

Creighton turned on his aura as he stumbled down the steps with his axe and wyvern tooth clattering just behind him, grunting more and more the further he went down. The knight ended up slamming his arm onto solid stone, feeling his axe hit the back of his neck, feeling his wyvern tooth bash onto one of his calves; that was the reason for him activating his aura, he knew his weapons would end up hitting him after this.

No one laughed, no one chuckled, despite wanting to. Instead everyone stared at him, some even standing up from their spots, looking if whether or not he was injured.

"Creighton?"

"Nah, nah," he lowly let out, getting himself up, quietly, but still breathing intensely, "I'm good, I'm good." Now they chuckled, but did not laugh. Though Creighton still found it to be harsh, that they would think of it to be okay to be amused by his accident, now knowing that he was okay. But he supposed he would be no better either he was one of them; he decided he deserved this as he picked up his weapons.

The man continued to make his way down to the raised stage, slowly, being more aware of where he places his feet this time, reaching his destination with no further accidents. Creighton stopped himself when he was just a few feet away from Goodwitch, proceeding to rub his eye while clutching his axe in an attempt to stop an itching sensation.

"Creighton, if you want, you may pick anyone today to spar." The stoic blond informed the older student. The thought just suddenly popped up in his head: he was definitely older than Goodwitch. The criminal then came to realize that he was older than a lot of professors at Beacon, his mind almost wondering off into the subject. But he stopped it before it could get the chance.

"Okay, I..." For a moment, he considered picking someone else than Ruby, or Nora, or anyone else of JNPR or RWBY; Creighton considered just picking someone of no affiliation with those eight students. But he also thought about getting over with this and be done so he can move on with this hogwash academy-life he was going through right now. "Ruby. Ruby Rose."

As expected by Creighton- this always happened whenever someone was allowed to choose a partner to spar- whispers of anticipation and shock broke out among the other students. The criminal knight searched among them for her, to see her face, managing to find her with her team and JNPR, right when Goodwitch asked: "Miss Rose, would you accept being Creighton's sparring partner for the day?"

She both sounded and looked void of emotion when she replied with a "yes."

"Then please go retrieve your weapon from the locker rooms, Miss Rose." The petite trainee nodded before doing as told, still retaining an emotionless figure as she left. The whole time this transpired, she was staring right back at Creighton. He wondered if this was an attempt to intimidate him, since that was first time he ever saw Ruby looking so dead of feeling, if it was because she was disinterested in all of this, or if thinking about sparring with him was sucking away all the passion in her.

Creighton soon found that thinking about it was stupid, because he soon believed the thought itself was stupid. It did not matter to him what was the reason for this, in his mind Creighton was sure this will end in her defeat, even if he was still left with no proper sleep. But that soon transpired into another thought: if he beats a young girl like her, there was a fifty/fifty chance that he may look like an asshole to the rest of the student body, for defeating someone so inexperienced. But also if he lose to her, then he has to same chance to look like a total chump to them, due to him being a veteran that would lose to such a greenhorn like Ruby.

No matter what happens, though Creighton decided to just accept this situation as a lose/lose one. There was nothing he could do now to change this.

"Creighton," the middle-age man's eye wandered over his right to look up at Goodwitch, again having another realization: that Glynda was really tall, even if she was wearing high-heels, "did you sleep well last night?"

"...Yeah..."

"..."

"... No. I'm still tired. Really tired."

A small 'tch' came out, followed by: "You should've informed me then, I would have let rest for today and spar tomorrow."

Creighton's lips stretched but not into a frown nor a smile. His corners just went as far as they could horizontally while he furrowed his brows, wrinkling his forehead with mild irritation.

"Can I rest up now then?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I heard of what occurred between you and JNPR, and the bet you made with Ruby." He further stretched his lip, surprised by Glynda, almost concerned with how she could catch wind of what went down in the dining hall so fast. "So Ozpin and I decided to let this spar between you two to be a suitable punishment for your actions. Understand?"

"... Yes ma'am." Creighton was about to ask her _"What if I didn't choose Ruby though?"_ but he realized that it did not matter of who he chose to be his partner. He would still have to spar, and it would still be his punishment.

With what he assumed to be a minute having passed, Ruby came out after, looking just as calm as she was before, with her weapon of a future Creighton found to be ridiculous. When he first heard of the idea of a person being able to get their hands on a half-gun, half-blade weapon, the criminal believed it would never catch on, he believed it would even become just a fad, like pogs. Now he hates the present for proving him wrong.

He shifted his sight to her clothes as the petite girl strolled up onto the elevated, some students cheering her on, one - he was sure it was Nora- even shouted _"break his legs Ruby!"_ Creighton took note of how well kept her outfit looked, how clean it appeared, free of icky stains or large specks of limp. It made him look down at his surcoat, seeing the rips, the tears, the dried blotches of blood, food, and muk; it was enough to make him hold up the collar to his mask holes, taking sniff and finding a foul smell.

"Ugh." He let go of it, looking back up at Ruby, then at Goodwitch, who had left the stage by now, discovering her looking right back at him.

"Are you ready, Creighton?" He took a second to nod, to which the blond looked over at Ruby.

"And you, Miss Rose?"

"Yes ma'am." She replied, sounding as normal as Creighton had ever heard her to be. Though he did not pay much attention to it, rather instead focusing on a piece of clothing on Ruby's figure, noticing it for the first time ever.

"Then you two may begin." As usual, the lights around the stage went out, save for the one that revealed the stage itself, leaving Creighton and Ruby to be surrounded by the dark.

Rose, as most students would do, gripped her scythe in anticipation, feeling her muscle slightly tense up, ready to react to whatever Creighton would do. Whereas he himself, the man looked to her like he had no idea of where he was, simply standing there, with his one eye focused on something.

"... Are... are you wearing corset." The question itself tune Ruby out of reality for a second, due to the shock-factor being so immense to her.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me: is that a corset you're wearing. Because in my opinion, I think you're too young to be wearing something like that in public, let alone in a fight."

"... Okay, well... this- it's not a corset. This is a _waist cincher._ "

"It's still a corset, you **stupid** idiot." Ruby started to feel that irritation that would come to most people when they engage in a verbal dispute with the knight.

"No, it's-"

"-Quiet, quiet, quiet. Don't even say _'no'_ to that, because a waist cincher is still a corset, just much shorter."

"W-"

"-And you're still too young to be wearing one." Her little, soft features barely wrinkled into a scowl.

"Who are you to tell me what I should and should not wear depending on my age?"

Creighton was almost going to shoot more unsavory words, yet he stopped himself. The reason for doing so was because of how stupid this conversation. What made it worst for him was that he started it, and he knew it too. The shame Creighton started to feel was unmatched, and to him, the only way to fix all of this must start with the following words he was about to say.

"You know what? Fuck it."

He charged after that, forcing aura to flow while extending both his arms in preparation to cross-slash Ruby with his axe and wyvern tooth.

Yet- and he expected it- Ruby disappeared in blinding speed, leaving behind a trail of rose pedals as she zoomed pass him, striking his right kneecap with the blade of her scythe.

In falsehood, Creighton fell onto his right knee, still keeping his weapons in hand, clutching it still. It was too early to release his axe and tooth in pain, it was too early to sell like that. Before he could get back up though, two bullets struck the small of his back with a greater force than he expected, enticing him to grunt, wince and bend backwards, all the while hearing students cheering her on. Again though, his visible pain was in falsehood, even if it did hurt though; it just wasn't enough to even make him think of stopping.

Right as he opened his eye, Creighton again felt Crescent Rose striking him, this time on the back of his metal-covered head. Again he faked suffering, forcing himself to slam face-first against the raised platform while grunting once more, this time letting go of his weapons purposely. What followed were cheers toward Ruby, and jeers toward Creighton, having no demoralizing effect on him though; he could imagine it having at least a positive boost on her mood however. Whether it would lead to overconfidence or not, he did not know. But he did wish for it.

When he reached for his axe, Creighton felt his stomach somewhat drop when seeing a blurring tornado of red zoom over it, being grabbed by her free hand and being brought over across the raised stadium from his location. He snapped his head back to see the petite student quickly throw his axe to the side, soon using her semblance to again dash her way toward him, this time grabbing his wyvern tooth and carrying it over to the other side of the raised stage, tossing it to the side as well.

"You little cunt." Was groaned out as Creighton pushed himself up while maintaining a scowl at the little pest before him- who was not visibly offended by his name-calling. He was extremely agitated with the fact that she had just effectively disarmed him, though he guessed that barely made any difference in this fight; he could effectively take care of her without his weapons, all that mattered was just being able to hit her. But still, he had no appreciation for how she threw his axe and tooth away like garbage; that in turn just tempted him to say something nasty in general.

"Why can't you be as dumb as that bitch-of-a-sister you have?"

He got no verbal backlash for that question, instead Creighton watched Ruby dash straight forward, immediately prompting her target to smile beneath his steel mask as his whole body tensed up with a little aura, his chainmail doing the same with a little aura too.

Ruby struck him square in the chest with her blade, only to find herself being effectively stopped by Creighton who merely staggered back, giving out a grunt as he did so. Rose quickly recovered from her bewilderment and dashed back before he could attack in retaliation, further irritating Creighton in being much more tactical than he anticipated.

Yet, he hoped for another strike to come.

"Come on! Hit me again! You won't take me down!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, pounding his chest with balled-up hands, enticing more adrenaline to flow as he did so. This new strategy he had to adopt- since he was unarmed- was to him, the best option: taunt Ruby into attacking him, to which each strike he will respond with more feigning of exhaustion, then just like with the original plan, take her down with surprising speed and power right at the finale. "COME ON YOU LITTLE BITCH!"

Unfortunately, she answered with her scythe morphing and blasting out bullets, two to be specific, striking Creighton dean in his masked face. He what he planned, pretending to stagger back again, but he hoped she would attack him with an actual close-range attack.

The man shook his head and shot he glare back at Ruby again, shouting with even more vigor this time. "FUCKING COME ON! Bullets won't take me down you little punk-ass ** _,_** _pussy, **millennial-bitch!**_ "

Yet again though, Ruby fired more at Creighton, this time four bullets ramming into his gut, violently bending and bouncing off while he feigned more and more. He staggered back again, even falling to his knee and breathing heavily, but soon shaking his head once more and getting back up, further smacking his chest with his fists.

" **Fuck you Ruby!** You little swine! You cunt of a motherless-goat! Hit me with that scythe, not a fucking bullet! Your parents should be fucking ashamed of you! I hope your mother dies a horrible death! I hope she goes to hell and gets raped by demons, fire, and pitchforks! I hope your father-"

She cut him off this time with an explosive round, making contact with his mask and bursting into a loud, violent display of carnage, of course catching Creighton off-guard as well by severely snapping his neck back, having not anticipated Ruby to use such a weapon.

But unlike most people though, Creighton fought through the sudden numbness taking him at the neck and still stood strong for one second as he skidded across the stadium, but was soon taken over by the compelling man-made force and flipped over onto his stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs.

He chose a new plan at this point.

He lied there for what he guessed was a good ten seconds, before bringing his head up to look at both of his arms, holding it up for another few seconds before bringing it back down.

" _I... I-I can't move._ "

Ruby stood there, still feeling unkempt fury flowing in and out of her body, not having heard what he whispered, but did hear the uncharacteristic whimper come out between his lips. Yet she thought nothing of it, instead standing still, gripping her scythe in her little tensing hands, waiting for Creighton to get up so she can give him what he deserved.

"..."

There was still no sign of Creighton moving, except for his head, now being brought up to meet her steel-gray eyes, then falling back down face-first again.

"I can't move." He said again, with more volume this time. Creighton's statement was met with a moment of silence, being followed up with a familiar sound of speeding footsteps, before being punted hard in the head by what he presumed to be a foot of hers.

"STOP FAKING YOU ASSHOLE!"

He heard Ruby, and in response- now being fueled with the usual ire of being infuriated with Rose's intellect- he lashed out incredibly fast, tackling the small girl down by wrapping his arms around her waist, grabbing each of his hand with each other into an iron-grip, and driving himself down, now taking the air out of her this time while disarming her as well.

Ruby broke into a fiery panic, pathetically making an attempt to break out of the hug of pain simply. She simply punched him in the head, unfortunately bloodying her own knuckles in the process, while the bearhug was still maintained by Creighton as he slowly brought himself up to his feet while simultaneously squeezing the life out of the petite student, forcing her to arch herself forward as her spine bent in an unhealthy manner. The pain to Ruby was alien, in the sense that she never felt pain similar to that of her whole body being snapped like a twig, and with this inhuman anger, along with the ungodly strength of the knight, her panic grew from the thought of him breaking her spine even after the spar ended.

Meekly but with haste, she grabbed both of Creighton's elbows with her hands, feeling the muscles being clenched under chainmail while he tightened his bearhug on her even further, forcing Ruby to pour more aura into protection from physical damage, yet the pain still rose to the point that Ruby started tearing-up, gritting her teeth hard as nails, and almost going limp like a corpse. It wasn't until a few seconds later that Creighton could feel a light tapping of her hand on his left arm, part of the side that was hidden from the crowd and Goodwitch.

He did not want her to tap though; his love of hurting clouded what little morale he had left, not wanting this to end so soon.

So he released her, allowing the breathless Ruby to fall and as soon as she hit the surface, Creighton proceeded to tackle her down again, ending up on top of her abdomen with each of his knees laying next to each of her sides. Before she could react, Creighton pinned both of her shoulders down, and waited until it seemed as if Ruby realized what was happening now.

When her eyes locked on sight with his own, he took that as sign of it having happened, raising his right arm up into the air, bending it, built up aura, and brought it back down with the might of a charging boarbatusk, unloading into Ruby's forehead with his elbow, emitting a small crack, only audible enough to be heard by him, her, and Goodwitch.

To the now daze and possibly-concussed Ruby, the power behind the blow felt like he just took his axe, pressed it against her forehead, and pushed it down with all of his strength while moving it to the left. Her blood started streaming out of the cut as well, forming a small waterfall of red, causing a pool to form beneath her head as Creighton got off of her, due to the match-ending buzzard telling him it's over.

The lights flashed back on, reflecting off of the small red puddle forming beneath the Ruby's head, who was merely crumpled, laying on her back while weakly pressing her hands up against the cut, feeling her head throb as if she had a second heart within her skull, while Creighton was looming over her, recollecting himself just by looking down at the poor girl, realizing how unnecessarily far her went into this spar, yet not feeling as much remorse as he should.

Creighton took a few steps back as Goodwitch rushed over to check on Ruby, taking off his steel mask to let the stuffy sensation out. He brushed a hand through his rough, graying hair, looking up from the injured girl to everyone else sitting in the auditorium. Some looked disgusted by his actions, some looked frightened by his actions, and some looked furious by his actions; his own team and LLKY all were visibly worried, each varying in severity. Creighton assumed it was for Rose's own health.

"Yang- wait!" A few seconds following the shout, and Creighton looked down just in time to see a bawled fist of a pissed-off blond bombshell hit him squarely in the jaw.

The Mirrahn staggered back, clenching his eyelid as he pressed a hand up against his bottom jaw.

"YANG!" Another fist smashed into his right cheek, now dislocating his bottom jaw and cutting the skin while packing enough force to finally knock Creighton off his feet. When the Mirrahn fell onto his back, Yang pounced on him, further assaulting him with two more punches to his cheek, each stronger than the last, before she was restrained by Goodwitch's semblance.

"MISS XIAO LONG! Control yourself at once!" Creighton barely heard, with his sense of sound mostly hearing the familiar ringing he would hear after surviving an explosion of a flash bang.

"No- look at what that **fucking** monster did to my sister! HE DESERVES THIS!" He rose up in the style of a zombie sitting up in its grave, shakily taking both of his hands to his dislocated jaw, feeling all that was wrong with it while looking up to see Yang about to burst with titanic contempt for his existence; her hair and eyes were lit golden ablaze, and her mouth opening up to shout out more profanity at him.

The man popped his bottom jaw back into place, making him wince again due to the painful jolt from doing so.

"Calm down Yang." Creighton could hear the sound of her faunus partner trying to sooth her as he got back up to his feet, looking back up with no emotion at Xiao Long, seeing her long gorgeous mane of hair glowing bright, and her violet eyes doing the same as expected while she was held back. Blake was by her side, continuing on with the effort of calming her hazy mind. He then looked over to Ruby to see that medical staff and Weiss had rush to her aid, where he and the Schnee shared a momentary eye contact, being met with a more livid disgust than usual.

The last person he looked at was Goodwitch, noticing his gaze by the corner of her vision while she focused on Yang.

"Creighton, go back to the locker rooms and wait there for me."

And he did as he was told, nodding and walking pass by Yang at a dangerously close distance, getting a snarl out of her in the process...

* * *

"We are leaving now."

"... Will anyone come with us?"

"No, my father wants them all to stay. But he says we may leave; I am willing to believe he wants us to do so as well."

"... Where... where will we go?"

"To the another forest like this, but filled with red leafs, red grass, and bark as dark as the night sky. There we will find another tribe of my kind."

"Will they take us in?"

"I am sure they will do so..."

"... They will be fine with taking in... you. But what if they reject me?"

"Then we will wander until we find a home for us both."

"And what if there is no... no such thing?"

"... Then we will make one for ourselves."

"... Okay."

"Now come, I have packed us enough food for our journey."

"... I am sorry for all of this."

"Don't, it is not your fault... And it is not my father's either. The grim, the humans, the faunus, the demons, the undead, this world are the ones to be blamed for what they have done to us."

"..."

"... They may have taken what we once held dear to our beating hearts. But soon, we will take the same from theirs. Your mother will be avenged, I will see to it."

"..."

"..."

"... I may not wish for all to parish. But the one in the metal mask though."

" **Him**. Don't worry, we will find him one day, don't you worry. Come now, there is nothing left here for us..."


	12. Chapter 12

_**Author's Note:**_ _ **I do not own anything from RWBY or the Dark Souls trilogy.**_

* * *

"Hey Creighton."

"Yes?" Creighton looked up from his breakfast to Dove, sitting across the table from him.

"Did you make your axe?"

He stared at the brunette for a few seconds before speaking: "No."

"Oh... well, is it a family heirloom?"

"No."

"... Did you buy it?"

"No."

"... How did you get it?"

"Killed a man for it. His name was Lothian, an old foolish man of Forossa's dead army who thought he had what it took to fight dragons and wyverns. But yet in the end, he fell in battle against a human, me." Creighton admitted, sparing any of the detail and just giving his team and LLKY the broadest answer he could give. It all got a scoff out of Russel, prompting his leader to glance over at him now. "What? Don't believe me punk?"

"Oh no- I actually **do** believe you, Creighton. It's just that we took bets on how you got your axe, and I just won." Immediately after saying so, Cardin, Sky, and Dove all tossed lien over to the little speedster, much to their chagrin, while Creighton blankly watched with some confusion. "Thank you Cray."

"... None of you care about me having just admitted to taking another life for my axe?"

"Well," Russel spoke, "... yeah, it is messed up you killed an old man for that axe... but..."

"..."

"... Yeah, yeah Cray, I may not be a saint, but you still killed someone. And even if he was from Forossa-"

"-We were actually in Forssa after it collapsed, so should I be punished for killing another man in a land where no jurisdiction exists?"

"I-I'm not saying you should be punished. It's just that..."

"..."

"... I don't know. Just forget about it." Everyone at the table was poisoned with awkwardness now, except for Creighton, who felt almost nothing. But that still did not mean he wanted to sit and eat at a table with such an uncomfortable atmosphere in the morning, so he tried his luck with lifting it off his fellow students.

"... So... uh... how did you all come to receive your weapons?" Creighton asked, though not really expecting a variety of answers since he assumed that just like every other huntsman-in-training, his teammates made their own weapons; guessing where the members of LLKY got their swords and catalysts was a bit more complicated.

"... I made mine."

"Me too."

"Me three."

"Ditto." Were the responses of his teammates, making Creighton shake his head.

"Yeah, I thought so. You inner-kingdom kids are lucky to get an abundance of resources to make weapons as insane and complicated as you desire them to be. While the rest of us have only metal, magic, and sometimes body parts of monsters."

"Hey, don't try to act like we're better off than you guys," Sky chimed in with unexpected enthusiasm, shocking his leader with how easy it seemed to lift his spirits, "you guys got what we don't!"

"... Body parts?" Karla inquired.

"What? No- I mean magic! There isn't a week that I go through without wishing I knew pyromancy!"

"Hmm, simpleton, of course thou would thirst to know pyromancy."

"How does me wanting to shoot frickin' FIRE out of my hands make me a simpleton?" The halberdier asked Yuria, feeling mildly insulted while also confused.

Karla informed him on why Yuria insults him, saying: "Don't mind her Sky, she insults your intelligence because pyromancy is often mocked for its simplicity and how primitive it is."

"There's more to it than that." Lothric stated, "Kingdoms outside of Vale, Vacuo, Atlas and Mistral frown upon pyromancy for the destruction it has rained upon us." He looked over at Lark, "At some point in the past, a powerful witch that practiced fire magic attempted to replace the First Flame with a new fire when it began to fade, as an effort to prolong the Age of Fire. But her efforts failed, and in her failure came a vile torch that produced the very first demons by using her soul. It is because of her that our elders, our parents, and even some children are resentful of pyromancy."

The table remained silent for seconds to come, until Cardin asked, "Is... is that evil flame-thing she made still... around?"

"Yes," Creighton answered him, "but it is weaker now than it ever has been, and it will proceed to fade into nothing. It's meek existence is the reason for there being so few demons living today; they will soon become extinct, probably even within your lifetimes."

"Mmph, that's brutal." Was what Winchester had to say to that. "I heard that... demons live for a long time. That makes it kind of terrible to be one; they get to see their kind die out right before their eyes."

"Yes," Lothric responded, "tis a fate only a stone-hearted god would grant. Though being bound by such a destiny forces some of the demons to... attempt to work along the side of some they once considered enemies. Such an example is the guard of the main gate to our city: a gargantuan demon made of mossy stone, a clear sign of how much the chaos flame has weakened."

"That's... that's pretty cool." Sky said.

"I actually saw that damn thing once," Creighton chimed up, "it's taller than a one-story house, and it wields a hammer so large that it'd probably cause anyone seeing for the first time to soil their drawers."

Karla asked, in a slightly sarcastic tone, "Is that what you did when you gazed upon it?"

"No," was Creighton's answer, proceeding to sit up from his seat, "I must go now and... ugh- help RWBY this stupid prom shit."

"What? But you barely ate your breakfast, Cray.

"I'm not hungry, and also I was suppose to go apologize to Ruby thirty minutes or so ago." He said to Sky, getting a _"Nice"_ out of Russel. Creighton didn't acknowledge it though and instead waved his friends goodbye, leaving the dining hall soon after to attend to his punishment.

It was strange choice for Ozpin to pick, or at least it strange to the Mirrahn. His punishment was to give Ruby a sincere apology- which he could do since he legitimately felt a tad bit remorseful for what he did. But to make matters worst, Creighton was told by Ozpin to not carry his axe or wyvern tooth with him for thirty days, so if he were to accidentally anger her, Creighton's only defending himself would be to go up against Yang in unarmed combat, an art which she holds an advantage over almost everyone in Beacon thanks to her semblance. Yet Creighton knew to himself he could beat her down, for his semblance granted him much power, but in a very different, and much more sinister way. Though he had no armor on today, not even his mask, not because he forgot it but because the temperature today would cook him alive if he were to wear any of his armor at all, so he'd be more vulnerable to Yang if she lashes out at him.

As he wandered about the outside of Beacon's campus, the old student stopped when noticing several parked airships, all looking so familiar to Creighton for a reason that was strong enough to stop him from finding Ruby. He remembered seeing them during one of the many wars her fought in while living in Mirrah, but who did they belong to? This question gnawed on his mind to the point that it forced him to approach said-airships for a closer look.

At some point he stopped though, seeing multiple armed individuals guarding the airships, whom he was sure wouldn't let him go anywhere near the crafts. But even then, he still couldn't figure out who they were, or why they all looked so similar to an enemy of Mirrah. It wasn't until a certain individual spoke up behind him that he would finally realize why these people and airships stirred up such memories.

"I take it you're fan of airships?"

Creighton was not startled by the voice, but who started a conversation with him would.

When he turned around to look at who it was, Creighton could feel his stomach drop when he gazed upon none other than General Ironwood, towering him at height that almost matched Cardin's, looking to be in a tranquil, yet demanding composure that required one to pay attention to him when he was talking. What followed his shock was a hurricane of searing fury that Creighton forced himself to hold down, barely- but being able to- calmly reply with, "You're General James Ironwood."

"Well, yes I am."

"Why are you here?" Creighton inquired, now unintentionally letting a tad bit of his agitation seep out, which somewhat takes the general aback. But even still, he maintained his authoritative presence.

"I'm sorry, does there seem to be a problem?"

Creighton now realized he exposed himself already, stopping himself before he could continue on to a take steady breath. Though it did not get rid of his hatred for the general, it did sooth him enough to keep on talking without wanting to stop and kill him right here and now.

"Excuse me, it is just that I come from Mirrah, where I fought in the war between us and Atlas; I'd be lying if I said I still didn't hold hatred within myself for Atlas."

That was a confession Ironwood had never even dared to think of hearing, making his brows elevate, being a clear sign of him being stunned.

"Well, never in my life would I think of meeting a veteran from that war right here, as a student attending Beacon."

"I could say the same about meeting you too."

"... Well," Ironwood held out his right, gloved hand, unbeknownst to him incidentally insulting Creighton, "even though we may have once been enemies, I want you to know that there's no need for there for you to feel prejudice against me, or my men. We aren't here to for any conflict."

Creighton incredulously stared at his hand with his one cobalt eye before choosing to grab and shake it, clearly feeling metal beneath. "Albeit you have a point, I'm sure a reasonable man like you knows that resent can't be rid of so easily."

"Ah, well, yes, that is unfortunately true." The criminal gave a "hmph" as he released his grip, in response to his usage of the word unfortunate, believing that even if it is true, resent can still be of some use in this current age.

"... I'm Creighton," but he didn't tell Ironwood of his opinion, "in case you wanted to know."

"Just Creighton?"

"It can also be Creighton the Wanderer, Creighton of Mirrah, or just Cray."

"Well then, Creighton, we could continue on talking, but I'm have important business to attend to." The Mirrahn nodded his head, his lips horizontally broadening in no expression. "Until next time."

"Yeah," the older man spoke, watching Ironwood turn his back and walk onward to Beacon Tower, "... until then, you bastard." Creighton kept on watching until he became a speck in the distance, soon returning with his search for Ruby...

* * *

"... It's funny, how Creighton was the one to slay Shieldless-Lothian." Lothric spoke up, getting a nod-in-agreement from his gargantuan of a bigger brother.

"What? What the hell do you mean by that?" Russel requested.

"Well, despite what Creighton said, Lothian was no mere foolish old man. Once, before Forossa became fields of chaos, Lothian was a general of the kingdom's army." The statement earned the prince quizzical stares from the rest of CCRDL, silently asking Lothric to continue on. "But your leader did get one thing right about Lothian though: that he hunted for dragon and wyvern to battle against, after find humans and faunus to be too insignificant to fight."

"... So, is there a point you're getting to with all this?" Cardin inquired.

"Well, no not really," Lothric started, "but it is very strange when you think about it. Creighton _proclaims_ he had ended Lothian in Forossa and took his axe for himself, but did he really just go there just for such a weapon? Or did he go there for something else? Did the Wanderer even plan on confronting the former-general at all? Why did he leave so much behind about who Lothian once was?"

This time, Karla came in, saying, "Wasn't Lothian alive around a century ago? If Creighton really did kill the general, then he himself should be dead by now."

The air around the table became dry and chilling as some of the student's hearts stopped beating for a second in shock of what that could mean.

"... Is... is he really an undead?" Cardin asked to no one in particular, feeling a little cold sweat streaming down in beads on his forehead.

"Well, have you noticed that... mark of the cure, thing, whatever it is?" Dove responded. "Because I sure haven't."

"Yes, I haven't noticed any such mark on Creighton ever since I have met him." Lothric stated while recalling every time he saw Creighton without any article of clothing, trying to make sure he was correct. "There is the chance he lied however, merely just finding or even stealing his axe."

"Thou doth know of there being more beings out there than the undead." Yuria started, gathering everyone's attention in her direction. "There exists the Dark Ones, who are blesses with rewards, eternity in our world being one such guerdons."

"So... he could be a part of the Abyss, that's what you're saying?"

"It's a subject to pore on. But even if, there are still more creatures out there, neither demon, grimm, undead, human, or from the darkness of humanity. Creighton could be a part of the unknown, an evil that wanders through Remnant. With his Pate being of a similar nature."

"Shit..." Nothing followed Cardin's simple remark, no words or gestures as the rest of the dining hall and its students moved with their lives..."

* * *

The criminal knight eventually found his target, Ruby, after exploring Beacon for what was probably the most tedious hour in his life. The little girl, along with the rest of her team, in the library of all places, appearing to be playing some kind of game with cards. JNPR was here too, sitting at a different table studying, something that one would actually do at a library. But Creighton wasn't here to tell RWBY that they're wrongly using the library.

He approached the girls, trying to appear as casual as possible as an effort to reduces any tension there might me. That did not work though when being about halfway to their table Yang noticed him and got out of her seat, looking ready break Creighton into two if he did not back away. But he wouldn't be intimidated so easily, but he still did raise both of his hand up as a sign of peace.

"Whooooa, calm down now, Yang. I'm not here to cause any trouble, cause anymore pain, I just," as Creighton a mere step forward, Yang responded by stomping towards the man, putting him fight-mode for this undesired brawl that was about to take place.

"Yang- stop!" But fortunately, Ruby was there get in the way between her big sister and the Mirrahn psychopath, effectively stopping Yang from proceeding anymore while she maintained her glowering stare at Creighton. "It's okay, Yang, just... please sit down." It took a few seconds of just standing there, glaring at the middle-aged knight, who returned the same look right at her, until Yang reluctantly went back to his chair, leaving Ruby to stand before Creighton.

When turning his sight down at the petite girl, Creighton saw her looking just as healthy as ever, as if he had never opened her head with his elbow in the first place, all thanks to aura.

"What is it, Cray?" Ruby asked, surprising him in two ways: one, she called him Cray, a word he grew accustomed to only hearing from his friends, or people who just did not hate him, and two being that she sounded concerned in a way like a mother would ask their child if something bothered them. Or maybe he was just perceiving her ton the wrong way, he didn't know.

"Ruby... I came here to apologize for what I did yesterday, all of it. Throwing soup filled with hot sauce at Jaune, forcing you to fight me, busting your head open when you were..." Creighton felt his chest compress, forcing him to gulp, shakily breathing before continuing. "I-I just... there are some things you can't control when your like me. Old, traumatized from wars, mentally unstable in general, shit like that makes it hard for me to handle myself when fighting. And you were... unfortunately one of the many people I've battled against to fall victim to something not myself..."

"..."

"... I'm sorry." Creighton said again, feeling the silence squeezing his chest tighter in anticipation for her reaction.

"... Creighton..."

"Yes?"

"... I accept your apology." Albeit hearing those words improved his mood, Creighton couldn't help but think Yang might be irritated from her little sister being so kind. "I understand that... you're not healthy in the head, Creighton, I can understand why you would lose control of yourself. But I don't want you to feel ashamed of yourself for losing control yesterday, there's people here to help each other, that includes you, Creighton. You have friends to help you throughout all of this. It's all fine."

Creighton was sure it all wasn't fine, but he didn't want to say it and ruin Ruby's mood.

But in response to her overwhelming kindness, Creighton still had to say this: "...Ruby, sometimes, you're such a kind girl that it disgusts me. If you lived in someplace like Lothric, Mirrah, Forossa, or God forbid the Irithyll Valley, you'd already be an undead... maybe." The small huntress-in-training frowned. "But... it's nice, knowing that there are people out there like you, that there just isn't desolation and hatred and... evil." That however got a small smile on her face. Even if Creighton tends to be a prick most of the time, it was nice to Ruby knowing that he wasn't just all like he said: hatred and evil, though she wouldn't use the word "evil" to describe him.

"... Okay, well, I'll be going now and probably sleep or som-"

"-Hey, what about me?" Creighton paused, getting out a gravelly groan before turning around to look at Jaune.

"What about you?"

"Don't I get an apology?"

"Boy, I already said I was sorry about that."

"Yeah but... you weren't saying it to me though."

"..." Creighton left on that note, leaving him, RWBY and the rest of JNPR behind, almost leaving the library before accidentally bumping into Sun and some other bluenette Creighton didn't care about.

"Oh, nice, you're still alive. I haven't seen you for so long I though you bit the dust back at the docks." Then he really left on that, exiting through the doors as a befuddled Sky just stared on...

* * *

"What... what is that?"

"That... is the city known as Vale?"

"Vale?"

"It is home to many humans and faunus."

"It's... it's pretty."

"Yes, humanity are capable of creating beauty that rivals nature's work."

"... Do you hate them?"

"Who?"

"Humans... like the rest of your family?"

"No... but I know why we do. They driven us off land that used to be ours when they came, and built upon it their towns, their cities, like this one."

"I... see."

"But, that took places hundreds of years in the past. Today, we are dwindling as they grow, just because we refuse to peacefully integrate with them. It saddens me that it seems our destiny is to be left behind, and forgotten one day as they progress."

"..."

"... But that won't matter when the Age of Darkness comes, if that ever happens that is."

"..."

"..."

"... Do they hate us back?"

"... Honestly, we are so small in numbers that they probably don't even know we still exist."

"But..."

"... What?"

"... Could we ever live them, by their side? Would they accept us?"

"... I..."

"... don't know?"

"Maybe... maybe they could accept us. We are so insignificant when compared to them that they could consider us to barely pose any threat. One is normally content with letting creatures so weak in comparison to them to live among them."

"... It's... nice to think they'd let us live with them."

"... Yes, I guess..."

"..."

"... If it proves to be impossible to find any other paths, then we will have to pass through this metropolis to reach the Forest of Blood, so we better hope they'll just be accepting of us passing through if we ever resort to such a choice..."

"..."


End file.
